Reaching the Heavens
by Zoneshifter D
Summary: Uzumaki Naruto is going to learn the hard way that to achieve his goals is not as easy as he thought, if he can withstand the drama and insanity that follows the arrival of two strangers. His life will not be the same again...
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: Naruto and all related characters are the intellectual property of Kishimoto Masashi, and as such, are copyrighted to HIM. Any characters, objects, techniques, situations not originating from his works are MINE unless specified. This story is mine too; I'm just playing in his sandbox like thousands of other Naruto fanatics.

**Reaching the Heavens**

**Prologue: Wish upon the Stars**

One month. In one month, the genin exams would take place. And one Hyuuga Hinata, was terrified. If she failed, she would be bringing more shame to herself and the Hyuuga Clan name. And her father wouldn't tolerate a failure like that. No, he most certainly wouldn't. And the prospect of failing once more, at the first stage in becoming an official kunoichi of the Hidden Leaf village…it terrified her more than her father's disappointment at being incapable of defeating her younger sister in combat.

Yet at the same time, she was strangely hopeful.

Why? Because if she graduated, it meant Hinata would get assigned to a squad. And if she got assigned to a genin squad, she might get put in the same team as Naruto-kun! Yes, as terrified of failure as she was, the prospect of passing left the Hyuuga Heiress hopeful of finally spending time with her crush, the boy who despite all the hardships and ridicule he's had to endure over the years, still managed to amaze her by picking himself up from the ground again and again, no matter how many told him to give up.

Yes, Hyuuga Hinata, was hopeful, wistfully so.

Of course, when you consider how terrified she was at not graduating at the same time, one would expect the girl's thoughts and emotions to be rather jumbled up. And it would be true, which is the reason why Hinata lay awake in her bed, unable to fall asleep just yet.

Among the conflicting thoughts that were coursing through her mind at the moment, a stray worry appeared. What if her Naruto-kun failed once more? No… NO! He wouldn't fail! He could not fail! Not again, not this time! The other times he had taken the exam, two times to be exact, he failed. He might have not been ready in either occasion, though. But this time, he was sure to pass. He just had to.

Being Hokage was his dream. Naruto-kun wanted to be Hokage more than anything. She admired his confidence and drive, and wanted so badly to follow in his example. She was proud of him, even if she didn't have the courage to tell him yet. She wished she could find a way of making her father proud of her, as proud as she was of Naruto.

She really hoped she could be with Naruto on the same team. Then, maybe, just maybe, Hinata might learn from him, take some of his determination and make it hers. Then, she may stop being such a pitiful failure. Yes, she might be able to live up to her clan's expectations of her as an heiress… or at least some measure of them.

Still, having turmoil late at night is never good when you want to sleep. And Hinata really wanted to sleep tonight. Sighing in resignation, the girl directed her gaze towards the windows. It was a clear night, and the stars where sparkling brightly, oblivious to Hinata's troubled mind. Oblivious to her fears and her hopes.

She idly wondered if Naruto was also awake at this hour. Not out of nervousness, like her, but out of excitement. Yes, that seemed like Naruto-kun. If he were to be awake tonight, he'd be unable to sleep because of excitement. Too excited to fall asleep, looking forward to the day he finally received his Hitai-ite along with his classmates and became a shinobi; achieving the first step in reaching for his dream. If only she could be that excited, and the graduation exam was still one month away! She'd rather be in a state of nervous excitement than the earlier chaos in her mind, Hinata decided. Then maybe she might finally be able to enter the land of dreams. Pleasant ones, of course.

She did not feel like having one of her nightmares tonight.

Then again, she had to fall asleep to even get a nightmare. And she hadn't been able to attain any sleep whatsoever yet. Fortunately, she hadn't been awake that long. She might still be able to attain the necessary rest for tomorrow.

And then her ponderings were totally dashed upon witnessing the shooting star traveling across the night sky.

Now, Hinata was not really a superstitious person of any sort. Still, as she was looking at the shooting star, she couldn't resist indulging herself a bit, and made a wish. And the wish she made… well, as any sensible person will tell you, if you make a wish upon a star, and told someone, then it wouldn't come true. And so Hinata returned to her bed. But this time, slumber finally claimed her.

Had she kept her eyes open when she made her wish, Hyuuga Hinata would have noticed a most peculiar thing. For the shooting star split into three, the pieces scattering across the starry expanse in different directions.

It was just as well. There existed a slight possibility that Hinata would have thought of the display as a bad omen. And her life was more than deserving of the smallest amounts of happiness as it was.

On another note, one Uzumaki Naruto was indeed awake. But unlike the Hyuuga heiress, he had just been thrown back into consciousness from a dream involving ramen, Sakura-chan rejecting the stuck-up Uchiha and asking _him_on a date… Oh, and getting the Hokage Hat and Robes, with all the people cheering him on, ramen, Uchiha Sasuke groveling at his feet, and more ramen. So it was a good dream. Well, as good as his dreams got, in his opinion.

But then he was jarred awake by… well, he thought at first that his stomach was growling, but he wasn't hungry at all when he returned to the land of the living. He just had the strangest urge to go outside and look at the stars. Upon looking out the window, he saw a shooting star fly across the sky.

And when he saw the star split, the only words that came out of his mouth were "Wow, that is so cool! I can't wait to tell Iruka-sensei tomorrow!" And then he went back inside to catch sleep once more. He never did get to eat that extra large bowl of shrimp ramen in his dream.

Oh well.

* * *

Constructive Criticism is thoroughly appreciated and accepted. Flames will be flushed down the White Charlie. This is my story, enjoy!

Special thanks to XyoushaX and Paintball-Gamer for the beta work they did, and to my partner in crime, Arganaut.


	2. Of Peddlers and Tardiness

Disclaimer: Naruto and all related characters are the intellectual property of Kishimoto Masashi, and as such, are copyrighted to HIM. Any characters, objects, techniques, situations not originating from his works are MINE unless specified. This story is mine too; I'm just playing in his sandbox like thousands of other Naruto fanatics. Oh, and I most definitely do not own _Journey to the West_.

**Chapter one**

_**A week later, at the Main Village gates.**_

There are many necessary tasks that, regardless of their importance, could be considered quite tedious by those assigned to perform them. Guard duty was one of them. More specifically, guard duty at the main gate of a place called Konohagakure no Sato, Hidden Leaf Village. And for the Leaf Ninja entrusted with the responsibility of keeping a lookout at the gate to ensure no undesirables got into the village, no matter how important or necessary it was, the task of gate-keeping could get downright boring at times. Of course, when compared to the state of things more than a decade ago during the Third Great Shinobi War, gate guarding wasn't quite as strenuous as it might be during war time.

But it was still downright boring at times.

So even if they weren't at war with any other country for the time being, the shinobi unfortunate enough to be stuck with guard duty at the moment had a most daunting responsibility nonetheless. Part of it would be making sure no enemies got through. Of course, against other ninja it could be quite difficult, as infiltrating the village required much cunning and stealth, but surely they had to be incredibly skilled to get past the best shinobi in all the land?

The other part would be giving battle to that most difficult adversary that had claimed the lives of those foolish enough to succumb to its embrace…

Boredom.

Yes, boredom could be just as dangerous and deadly as the sharpest blade or the most insidious and undetectable poison. But it could get so hard at times to fight off this most annoying opponent, cause of much chagrin, the bane of those unable to defend against the culprit behind some of the tediousness of their jobs.

It wasn't that they were itching for a fight or anything. The gate guards weren't fools; they were quite appreciative of peaceful times, but no matter which way you sliced it, guard duty was incredibly monotonous.

Not that things didn't get chaotic at times around the village, thanks to the local prankster and most notorious troublemaker they had seen in years, Uzumaki Naruto.

They still couldn't comprehend how was it that an academy instructor could catch the fox brat so relatively effortlessly, especially when he has had even ANBU at times chasing him down after some of his practical jokes and shenanigans. Of course, it could be so much fun to watch at times, especially when you weren't the one doing the chasing.

Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if Uzumaki Naruto stopped by for a moment. Not that he ever came by to play tricks on the gate guards or anything, but maybe they could allow him to stay around for a bit to entertain them by recounting some of his escapes and pranks. Maybe they could borrow some of his ideas to get back at some people who owed them.

Yes, with Uzumaki Naruto, things were never boring around the village.

But right now they were still bored at their posts. There weren't many people passing through the gates today, and there wasn't any sign of an orange blur being chased around the village rooftops…yet.

Yes, boredom was never a good thing for a gate guard.

But things were about to change.

The guards saw a small figure approaching from a distance towards the gate. That in itself wasn't so odd; they got visitors of all sizes in Konoha. It was the way it moved that caught their eye.

The person was walking slowly and unsteadily, as if suffering from a sickness or injury. Indeed, the person's feet were almost being dragged on the ground while making its way towards the gate. Still, they were wary of the approaching form. Things were seldom what they appeared, especially in the life of a shinobi, no matter how relatively peaceful things were at the moment.

As gate guards they had the responsibility of checking it out. It wouldn't do to ignore someone who might possibly need some help. This became especially true when the figure fell to the ground in a heap just fifty yards short of the entrance.

The shinobi on guard duty went towards the figure to check things out, not letting their guard down. Even if the person wasn't an enemy, it wasn't unusual for an actual enemy to use innocents as bait. And they truly hoped that wasn't the case. Even if curiosity alone was enough to send boredom very far away, it was a lot safer to go through an uneventful day guarding the entrance than it would be to get attacked, and possibly killed, by an infiltrator feigning injury or sickness.

They would rather chase Naruto around the village while he was on an insane sugar high. It was already difficult enough as it was to chase him; they didn't want to think what could happen if he were ever to be inflicted by a sugar rush.

Involuntarily, at least one of the shinobi on guard duty shivered at the unbidden thought.

But upon looking at the sight in front of them, they wondered if they would rather pursue Naruto with a sugar rush than find what they did.

"Contact the medic-nin on duty at the hospital! And hurry up!" one of the guardsmen shouted. His partner complied instantly and went to find help with all the speed he could muster.

It was a young boy, no older than this year's students that were about to be graduated from the Academy. His dark clothes were ripped and torn, and his body and long hair were matted and covered with dried blood.

In the Ichiraku Ramen Stand, one Uzumaki Naruto was going through his daily allotment of his favorite food for supper. Well, it was the only food he seemed to eat. Of course, if you asked him why, he would tell you because it was the best food in the world.

If anyone would see him eating, they would be more likely to ask "where the heck do you put it all?" after they stop and notice the empty noodle bowls stacked up at both sides of the boy. Especially when taking into account how many bowls he has consumed. Of course, when also taking into consideration his age and height, the one question nobody would dare ask out loud would be, 'Why is he so short?'

On his best days, Naruto ate at least fifteen bowls of Ramen, all in different flavors. But on his worst days, he could barely scarf down two, three bowls, tops.

And today… wasn't his one of his worst days, but it definitely wasn't one of his best. Not that he would have complained about having many bad days, but the few good ones he had were few and far between as it were. It was amazing that the person told be the loudest in a village of ninja would keep quiet about certain things, like his more negative feelings.

Not many people would have bothered to have anything to do with the boy, definitely not enough to ask him what was wrong in any circumstance. The amount of people who seemed to care enough about Naruto to ask such a question could be counted with one hand and still have two fingers to spare.

It might be just one finger, but he didn't quite realize there was another person who cared. It wasn't his fault for the most part, as that person could barely talk to him without turning into a nervous wreck and at some occasions even fainting. He just dismissed the quiet girl as dark and weird and left it at that.

As for the people he thought might care for him somewhat would be the Old Man Hokage, who came to check up on him once in a while, his teacher Umino Iruka, who, although he always got on his case for the stupidest things (they were stupid to him at least) was nice enough to take him to eat Ramen sometimes, and of course, the one responsible for preparing what he thought to be the greatest meal in the land, Teuchi, the cook of the Ichiraku Ramen stand.

Oh, he forgot about the man's daughter, Ayame, so that makes four people that he knew would care enough to ask if he was okay. In any case, the fact stood that the amount of people who were truly concerned about Naruto's well-being on any level could be counted with one hand.

Of course, the people in charge of the ramen stand would definitely inquire about their favorite customer's day. It was only right, after all. The kid deserved a lot better than he usually got. At least, that was their opinion. If anyone asked them, they would stand by it, regardless of what others might say.

Besides, they rather preferred a very happy Naruto gorging on ramen, rather than a slightly gloomy Naruto eating his second bowl of noodles at a sedate pace. A happy Naruto was good for business.

"Hey Naruto, why the long face? Bad day at the academy, I take it?" asked the old Teuchi. Naruto just stopped momentarily slurping his noodles and pouted a bit. After grumbling about stupid jerks and getting hit on the head, Naruto recounted his day.

"I got beaten in a Taijutsu spar against that stupid Sasuke, again. I lost my instant ramen cup so I didn't eat lunch, again. And Sakura-chan bashed me on the head for trying to…to…speak to her, again." He really didn't want to say anything about asking her for a date and being bashed on the head for his trouble, again. Grown-ups tend to enjoy embarrassing younger people over silly things like that. And Naruto didn't feel like getting ridiculed more than he already had been today.

To top things off…

"And I failed to perform that stupid Bunshin no Jutsu, AGAIN!!" And then Uzumaki Naruto resumed slurping his noodles once more, a bit furiously though. It just wasn't fair! He could never get that Jutsu right!

The kind old Ramen cook just chuckled a bit. "Hey, don't worry about it. I'm sure you'll get it eventually. After all, you're going to be Hokage one day, right?"

Well, that did the trick. "That's right, old man! And don't you forget it! I will become Hokage! Believe it!" Yes, old man Teuchi definitely preferred a happy Naruto, no matter how loud the boy got.

Unfortunately, Naruto only had enough money in his froggy wallet to buy three more bowls, bringing a grand total of five this afternoon. Maybe Iruka-sensei would treat him to ramen again tomorrow…

After finishing up his fifth and final bowl of the day, Naruto went his way, feeling a lot better than he did earlier. Yet another reason he liked ramen so much, the people at the ramen stand always treated him well.

Maybe he would try and order more the next time, if he had extra money in his pocket.

There were still a few people at the streets this late in the afternoon, so he received several glares as he walked the street. Their eyes always bothered him. He just couldn't understand why they looked at him like that. A lot of the people he came across had given him those incredibly cold eyes for as long as he could remember.

He might have been called an idiot, but he knew it wasn't because of any of his pranks.

And to think that his day was finally starting to become more enjoyable… he'd better get to his apartment soon. Even if no one had thrown rocks and other things at him in years, Naruto didn't want to take any chances.

Suddenly he heard the sound of ninja moving through the rooftops at high speeds and tensed…then he relaxed when he remembered they weren't after him right now. When he saw the ninja, he recognized the whitish uniforms of those ninjas that worked at the hospital. Someone was probably injured and needed help as soon as possible.

Maybe a ninja team came back from a mission in bad shape. Hopefully, when he graduated and became a full-fledged ninja, that wouldn't happen to him. In fact, he really hoped he would be the one sending enemies left and right to the hospital. By the time he became Hokage, no one would be able to touch him!

And so Naruto spent the rest of the trip to his home daydreaming about all the opponents he would defeat, and beating that jerk Sasuke so badly his fan girls wouldn't want to see him anymore.

The injured boy was stable at the moment, but the medic-nin team had to move him to the hospital as quickly as possible, since that could change soon. He had no insignia of any Hidden Village on him or any identification whatsoever, but his chakra levels were low, even for a civilian. They would worry about the puzzle that was their patient some other time.

Once at the hospital, they moved him to one of the available rooms for treatment and diagnosis. The nurses took off his clothes so they could clean him up as well as they could. Then they clothed him in a hospital robe for the time being.

It wasn't unusual in a shinobi hospital to deal with patients who were covered with blood from a battle. But just a child, whether he was a genin-level ninja or a civilian, with the dry red liquid all over his body he could make even the most experienced doctor or medic-nin uneasy.

The evaluation baffled them. On the outside, no recent wounds that would explain all the blood were apparent. They would have to take samples of the dry blood to compare it with the boy's and see if it belonged to him or someone or something else.

But the scars that adorned parts of his skin would have done a good job of explaining where some of the blood had come from, if it wasn't apparent that those old wounds were not fresh at all.

He also had a strange assortment of what seemed to be tribal tattoos on his skin. They were simple in design, thick stripes that ended in narrow points as part of a symmetric design that seemed at place in a tiger's body, except that they weren't quite as numerous, and definitely wider and more jagged than those found in the large cats. In fact, they looked like thorny vines.

The ones in his torso started out from his upper and middle back and ended just shy of his chest. The jagged lines on his arms started on the upper corners of his shoulder blades and zigzagged in places on the sides of the limbs until they got to his wrists, where the lines wrapped around a bit.

The ones in his legs started just below where the femur connected to the hip bone, and zigzagged more violently on the sides than the ones in his arms before wrapping around the lower part of his calves at least three times before ending at the ankles.

He had markings in his face, too. The most prominent would be the lines that started from below his eyes and ended at the jaw in a narrow point like a knife. He had a much smaller mark in his brow that vaguely resembled a vertical oval with two lines that started up from the bottom tip outwards and then curved sharply inwards. The silhouette the marking formed was not unlike that of a maple leaf.

Still, if even if he was seemingly unscathed on the outside, on the inside was another story. He had bruised ribs and hairline fractures all over several of his bones, with small bone fragments embedded in some of his internal organs. And at the moment he was also starting to burn up with a fever and was grimacing in pain. The medics and nurses set out to help their patient.

They would worry about the mysteries of this patient later. Right now they had to perform the duty entrusted to them and take care of the sick boy. Maybe when he woke up, their questions would be answered.

However, the young boy didn't wake up for another week.

Although he was unconscious, he would sometimes scream in pain and thrash around wildly, the reason for which they had to use the straps to restrain him. If only the straps didn't break, they wouldn't have been forced to chain him down. They did put padding under the metal restraints; it wouldn't do to have their patient getting injured.

During these episodes, his replenishing chakra would fluctuate wildly, and new wounds would mar his body. More alarming was that he also received internal damage. The medic-nin and doctors who had to heal him were baffled. How was the boy in that hospital bed being harmed by his own chakra? They might have to contact the Hyuuga clan for assistance in this matter.

In any case, they would have to report to the Hokage.

He was in pain. He didn't like being in _this_type of pain. He wasn't supposed to be in this type of pain. Where are they? Where is he? Where is…? The scent of the area was somewhat sterile. '_A hospital… or a lab…?_' A slight surge of panic crossed through his mind at that last possibility. But… he didn't feel much in danger. Strange.

Ack, his body feels very heavy. Hard to move…wait, are those chains he hears? _'Must… open… eyes'_. An IV needle in his arm, some wires attached to his chest, connected to monitors, and an oxygen mask was in his face. And yes, he was chained down.

He wasn't alone. There were others in what he hoped was a hospital room. What were they saying? Is it even a language he speaks…? Ah, yes, he can understand them. Blasted cobwebs in his brain. Have to do some dusting soon. No time like the present.

"I…want to sit…up." Maybe it would have been better to stay quiet. The doctors were examining his eyes with those penlights they always seem to have, to check for retinal reflex, and he didn't quite appreciate that; he was getting a headache. After they were done fussing over him, they seemed to be quite hesitant to remove his chains. Crap, did he knock out someone in his sleep…again?

But after a command from a person in the room, they complied and unchained him. This person was an old man dressed in some sort of white and red robes and a strange hat with cloth cascading around the brim, leaving the face exposed from the front, and a kanji symbol for fire in a metal plate in the front.

"How are you feeling, child?" asked the old man. Sarutobi, the Sandaime Hokage of Konohagakure no Sato, was both slightly curious and mortified at the behavior of the hospital staff. The boy didn't answer out right. He seemed to be taking in his surroundings.

Considering how he was found, it wouldn't be surprising for the child to have been disoriented and unaware of his own whereabouts.

Never mind whatever unusual condition he might have had. While the damages might have been minimal so far, he worried about the life of the boy if the wild bursts started causing critical damage, especially in his head, and by extension his brain, which had miraculously been spared for the time being. As skilled as the hospital staff might be, there was no one available in the village with the immense level of skill his old student had in the healing arts. Maybe he should put in an effort to contact her again…

The child sat up, holding his head in his hands. "I feel lousy. Where…where am I?" he said in a raspy whisper, since he hadn't spoken in a while, aside from the screams in a few occasions. When he tried to get off from the bed, the medical personnel stopped him. The boy tried to protest, but complied with their request of staying in bed.

The Hokaqe smiled a bit before answering the boy's query. "You are in Konohagakure no Sato. More specifically, at the Konoha Hospital. I am the Hokage, the leader of this village. Can you please tell me your name, child?"

The boy cocked his head to one side, his eyes, partially hidden behind his long hair, focusing on Sarutobi. "My name…is Orion. How…did I get here?" He sent a questioning look that had a bit of worry laced into it as he spoke.

Sarutobi answered. "You were found collapsed a short distance from one of the entrances to the village. You were covered with blood. Your blood, if the tests are accurate. Tell me, how did this come to be? Except for a few fractures, you were mostly unharmed."

The Hokage didn't seem that surprised at his statement. The boy, Orion, pressed his eyebrows slightly together. "Well I - AARRGH!!" The boy started holding his right arm, feeling the pain in his limb. Another wild surge was coming. And it was hurting him.

But before the medics could even assist him, something unexpected happened. The surge stopped, before seemingly any damage occurred.

The boy was holding his left hand in a seal. He was breathing hard, sweat rolling on his skin from the exertion. His right arm was still trembling a bit, an aftereffect of the pain.

He looked to the Hokage, ignoring the bewildered expression of the others in the room. He stopped panting long enough to speak. "I'm going to need…materials. Is there… anywhere around here where they work leather?"

"Why…would you need those materials?" asked old Sarutobi.

The young boy flopped back on the bed. "Because I have to make a regulator that will keep my body from tearing itself apart, and I don't feel like getting the runes etched onto my skin."

Naruto was in a bad mood. He still couldn't get that stinking clone technique down, and the next graduation exams were less than two weeks away! If he didn't have it down by then, and they asked him to do that technique for the test once more, he was going to fail. AGAIN!

He was not going to fail this year. He was going to pass, and he was going to become an official leaf ninja, BELIEVE IT!

And when he became an official ninja, there would be nothing to stop him from becoming Hokage and earning everyone's respect. Yeah, they would ask for forgiveness and feel sorry they ever treated him like garbage! Everyone would be cheering him on in battle and his enemies would run away like sissies!

Yep, that's Naruto for you. Always dreaming about becoming Hokage and getting the acknowledgement and recognition he's craved for all his life. At times, it was the one reason aside from ramen that seemed to motivate him to get out of bed in the morning.

His expectations might be a bit unrealistic, but hopefully when he does graduates, whoever becomes his instructor should point him in the right way.

Hopefully.

So he was on his merry way to the academy, ignoring whatever glares might be directed his way this morning. He'd show them. He'd show_everyone._ He'd show that jerk Sasuke who was really the best ninja around. And he'd show Sakura that he was the one she should like. And he'd make Iruka-sensei proud of him!

To become the Hokage, a leaf ninja has to be the most skilled and powerful shinobi of all in Hidden Leaf Village. And Naruto…was ranked last place in his class, the exact opposite of one Uchiha Sasuke, who was turning out to be this year's top rookie.

He's got big dreams, but unless he gets his act together, that's all they're ever going to be.

Correction, he's got one very big dream, and a couple small delusions. The biggest one would be how easy it would be to get the rank of Kage. The second biggest would be Haruno Sakura ever liking him enough to want to be his girlfriend.

Haruno Sakura is a girl in his class. You can easily pick her out from a crowd by three distinguishing features. The first one would be her pink hair. She has long pink hair held by a red ribbon. The second one would have to be her green eyes. She had very pretty green eyes that seemed to shine sometimes when she smiled.

The third one would be her forehead.

It's not that her forehead or her face were ugly. But Sakura was gifted with a very…spacious…brow. Now, Sakura's forehead was always a sensitive issue with her, ever since she was a small girl. Some of the other children her age, especially the girls, would make fun of her forehead and call her names.

The one that really seemed to stick was Forehead Girl.

If a sensible person were to comment on her brow, they would say she had a scholar's brow. And they would be right, too. Sakura was the smartest girl in the class, even smarter than the top rookie, Sasuke. Unfortunately, her other skills were sorely lacking.

One might think that someone in preparation to become a shinobi, in Sakura's case, a kunoichi, a female ninja, would take their training very seriously. After all, male or female, being a ninja is always going to be a very dangerous occupation. But not Sakura.

She, like nearly every other girl in the class, was more interested in ordinary activities for girls her age, like hanging out with their friends, going shopping, or that bane of all male kind, gossiping. In addition to that, she was also infatuated with Uchiha Sasuke.

So not only was Sasuke the Number One Rookie of this year's graduating class in the Ninja Academy, he was also the local heartthrob. And Sakura, like all of her "rivals in love", would do anything to catch his eye… before he eventually shot them all down. But they only took this as a challenge that they would gladly face if it meant getting him to like them. And with the graduation so close, the would-be kunoichi would fantasize about being assigned to the same team as the boy of their dreams.

Naruto always took the time to greet Sakura whenever he saw her. And what does he get for his troubles? Sakura just bashes him on the head and shoves him aside like trash. Very frequently. So why does he like her again?

She's got pretty eyes and a sweet smile. That must be it.

Naruto considered Sasuke to be his rival. He had maybe two reasons for this. The first would be because Sasuke always beats him in a taijutsu spar... and at everything else as well. He was also quite arrogant, looking down on others, especially Naruto, whom he called a loser. Almost everyone did. Naruto wanted to show him up _real bad_. The second reason would be because Sakura spends most of her time fawning over Sasuke, like the majority of the girls her age who knew him. Not to mention any of the older ones. Let's just say that for a twelve year old, Sasuke was very handsome, and leave it at that.

At this point, anyone might be wondering why Naruto is so interested in such an obviously shallow girl like Sakura seemed to be. Part of it would be that he's lonely. He has no friends his age, or any other age as far as he knows. Also, he's an orphan, an orphan that no one ever wanted to take care of, or love.

He is very desperate for a little affection. Too bad for Naruto, that was something that Sakura was totally unwilling to give him. But he never blamed it on her. No, he blamed it on Sasuke for capturing the attention and admiration of everyone.

Attention he wanted for himself. Of course, when he graduated, he might be put on the same team as Sakura, while the jerk Sasuke got sent somewhere else. Then Naruto would show Sakura how great he was!

Naruto's naïve perception of things would probably make several shake their heads had they been privy to his thought processes in many. But he means well, usually.

Of course, Naruto was so busy daydreaming that he wasn't really paying attention where he was going. There are many dangers to being unaware of your current surroundings. So he tripped. And he fell on something that wasn't the ground. A lot of somethings, in fact.

"Hey, get your face off the merchandise. And take the rest of you as well," a person spoke somewhat nonchalantly. So the blond boy complied with the request, and picked himself up from where he fell. Some of the stuff he fell on was rather sharp and pointy, and stuck to his face.

"Owowowowow. OOWW! Hey, what's the big idea leaving all this crap lying around, you jerk?!" Naruto loudly protested. But he was ignored.

"I'm really sorry, sir; I'll make you another one right away!"

And of course, there is one more danger in not being aware of your surroundings. That is being unaware of the amount of living beings around you. There were villagers of all ages and even a few ninja as well. And they were all looking at the scene in some semblance of mortification.

Some just glared at Naruto and left.

Of course, Naruto paid no mind, and decided to vent his indignation at the person who ignored him in favor of some random villager. Sitting there, in the Indian style, was the source of his current predicament and embarrassment, or so the blond ramen lover believed.

It was a young boy about his age, or so it seemed. He was wearing dark clothes, gray pants and a long sleeved black shirt with the right sleeve rolled up to the elbow. That arm was covered in bandages, with a thick black leather band coiling around and disappearing into the sleeve. On his hands he wore black fingerless leather gloves that completely covered the back of the hand. His hair was long and brown, his messy bangs covering his eyes. On his feet were ordinary leather sandals.

In front of where he sat on the sidewalk was a large cloth mat almost as big as he was. On top of the mat was an assortment of bracelets, star shaped earrings, a couple of small throwing knives with intricate engravings and several wooden talismans with ofuda on them, as well as carvings of ninja with their weapons drawn.

Naruto cringed when thinking of all the sharp and pointy objects that he fell on. Even the wooden ones hurt his face.

On his left side, the boy had a rather large back pack from which he took the materials and tools needed to make a new carving to replace the one the clumsy blond broke. He was doing that quite fast, too.

To Naruto, the long haired boy looked like a hobo.

"Hey, what do you think you are doing?! I'm talking to you!!"

The 'annoying person' that just made Naruto's day miserable never stopped what he was doing. But that didn't prevent him from replying to the loud blonde's question. "Me? I'm trying to make a new carving to make up for the one you broke. Are you interested in buying something yourself? I could use the money. Need to pay for my hospital bill, you know."

Naruto was about to say something…but then he stopped to look at the leather band in the boy's right arm. Strange symbols just blinked into existence along the black leather, glowing a light blue… Then they disappeared. "Hey… what's with that thing?"

By now, the young artisan was halfway done with his replacement carving. He did spare a look at Naruto, though. "I know it's cool, but it's not for sale. I'll make something for you later if you want. Right now I have to get finished with this one." And he returned to his carving.

By now, some of the other people around decided to ignore Naruto and stepped around him, more interested in buying one of the artisan's creations than whatever conversation he and the blond prankster were having. The boy assured them that he would be with them shortly after he was done with his current carving.

"There you go sir. Just make sure you go to your local hardware store to get some sealant to protect it. Thanks again for your patronage." The customer paid for his purchase and thanked the artisan, albeit with a bit of shock at the speed at which he worked.

The others around him didn't wait long. Soon they were buying his merchandise and going on their way. They were some who asked for him to make something on the spot again. And Naruto…just stared.

Before the blonde could complain about being ignored again, the "hobo" spoke. "Don't you have school today?"

Naruto's jaw was in danger of becoming unhinged. "Oh, CRAAAP!! I'M GOING TO BE LATE!" And off he went as fast as he could. Iruka-sensei was going to be mad if he was late!

He'll get that punk for making him late!

The young artisan just stared at the orange blur disappearing in the distance. "He's very loud, isn't he?" he commented to no one in particular before attending to his customers again. Maybe he would meet that guy again. With that bright orange jumpsuit of his, it shouldn't be too difficult to find him.

The Hidden Leaf Ninja Academy was the place where the future generations of shinobi started on their path to become protectors of the village and its secrets. Many famous ninjas of worldwide renown started in here. The Legendary Sannin, students of Sarutobi the Sandaime Hokage all attended here before being assigned to the man who guided them on the path to greatness. Konoha's greatest hero, the Yondaime Hokage, also began as a student in this institution.

The teachers assigned with guiding those who aspired to become ninja of the Hidden Leaf Village… had it really rough.

It's not that they didn't like their jobs, most of them, at least. But to teach young children, whether it be the ninja arts or basic mathematical equations, wasn't always the easiest thing to do. That was the case of those that took pride in their task and took their profession very seriously.

Umino Iruka was one such person. Ranked a Chuunin, Iruka-sensei had the hard task of preparing future shinobi hopefuls for venturing in the world outside the Academy. Unfortunately, not everyone who attended made it past the academy. That's understandable, as the shinobi occupation isn't quite suited for some.

So there are always those who gave up before they even graduated. It always saddened Iruka when this happened, and he could only hope that those students would be able to do something else that would make them happy in the end.

Being a ninja isn't something you can do half-heartedly. Those that do not understand this usually die because they didn't take it seriously enough or were ill-prepared for their missions. They died as fools, not even making it to the memorial stone where the names of those who sacrificed their lives for the sake of the Village and their comrades were engraved.

But as long as Iruka was a teacher, he would do his best to ensure no one under his wing would even make it to genin, apprentice level ninja, unless he was certain they were worthy of the lowest rank in the shinobi forces.

But with the graduation on the horizon, he wondered how many would have to face the disappointment of failing again…which brought him to think about one student in particular.

Uzumaki Naruto.

Naruto had been his most (quoting Nara Shikamaru, another student of his) troublesome student for a long time now. The kid would goof off, cut class, and pull tons of practical jokes on many, including Iruka a couple of times in the past.

He wanted the child to succeed, he really did.

After the Nine-tailed Fox attacked the village twelve years ago, Iruka was left without a family. No one was willing to take care of him, to give him the smallest amount of attention. So he did whatever he could think of to get even the tiniest acknowledgement. He was almost as big a screw up as Naruto was, taking on the role of class clown and idiot. All so he could be noticed by others. And just like Naruto, his grades suffered.

So he could sympathize with Naruto. However, he wasn't going to make it easy for him, not at all. But whereas Iruka did graduate and eventually became a chuunin, Naruto's prospects of graduating were a bit dimmer. Sure, the kid eventually did master Henge and Kawarimi, which had given him more trouble than others when he started learning them, but his accuracy with weapons was nothing special, his hand to hand skills were barely average, and he hadn't shown any talent or interest in genjutsu at all.

Not to mention that he couldn't perform a simple clone technique.

He just hoped that Naruto wasn't one of the unlucky students that had to stay an extra year for remedial courses while all of his classmates went on to become Shinobi of Konoha.

Naruto was very stubborn. Perhaps he wouldn't let that stop him. But that was a best-case scenario. After all of his boasting about his grand ambition, the humiliation of failing while everyone else passed and left him behind might be enough to crush him this time.

As much as Iruka could sympathize with Naruto, he wouldn't let him graduate unless he was truly prepared for becoming a genin. No matter how much he cared for the boy.

If only he would put more focus on his studies, maybe he would have a better ranking in his group. As it was, if he did graduate this year, not only would Naruto the dead last of this year's graduating class, but as tradition went, the best and the worst student would be put in the same team to balance things out.

That meant he was going to be put with Uchiha Sasuke.

He didn't have to put much effort into imagining Naruto's reaction. He knew how much Naruto disliked the Uchiha survivor; putting them together on a team was bound to create much conflict.

Still, there was some time before the graduation. It would be better to worry about future headaches at a later date. Right now it was almost time for class. It was time for taking attendance.

And it seemed that Naruto was going to be late again.

Even with Mizuki as his fellow class instructor shouldering some of the burden, being a teacher was still hard. Especially with troublesome students like Uzumaki Naruto around.

Of course, when said student did make an appearance, Iruka wasted no time dishing out the punishment.

Most in the class just shrugged at the event; after all, this had happened before. Naruto was always causing or getting into trouble, and Iruka always delivered in spades. But as common as that was, most students just dismissed the occurrence as something typical for the loser.

Most, that is, except for one Hyuuga Hinata.

Hinata was perhaps one of the two quietest persons in their group. The rank of most silent went to Shino of the Aburame family. Hinata was a member of the Hyuuga clan, first among the shinobi families in Konoha, as well as being the daughter of the clan leader, Hyuuga Hiashi.

One might think that being from such an important family, that the quiet girl would carry herself with confidence and poise befitting of her station. Not Hinata. The girl was incredibly shy and insecure. Basically no one ever talked to her among her classmates unless it was necessary.

As it stood, no one could ever attest to being her friend. She spent a lot of the time alone, not trying to make conversation with anyone, and doing a good job of not bringing the attention of others to herself.

Just as they dismissed Naruto for being a troublemaking loser, they dismissed Hinata as being shy and weird. And they left it at that, leaving her alone.

Just like they did with Naruto.

However, unlike Naruto, she wasn't reviled by the villagers for seemingly no reason. Instead, she was reviled by her own family for not measuring up to their expectations of her as heiress to the position of Clan Leader.

It wasn't really her fault. Hinata was a very kind person who didn't like to hurt others. The fact notwithstanding that they had her spar against her own sister didn't help her at all. And since Hinata's sister, Hanabi, was much more aggressive than her elder sister, she had no problems during their matches. Of course, taking into account Hinata's unwillingness to hurt others, she lost every time to the now seven year old.

So in the eyes of her clan and her father, she was a failure. It wouldn't be hard to imagine that the girl had serious issues with herself. Being called weak and a failure constantly by your own flesh and blood could have that effect, especially when it was your own father.

Sadly, her clan's impatience and lack of flexibility in what concerned her development all but destroyed whatever confidence and self-worth Hinata might have had. Her father's harshness didn't help at all.

She would have given up on bettering herself a long time ago if it hadn't been for Naruto.

The boy's determination to succeed inspired her in no small amount. He had been ridiculed by both students and teachers alike. He messed up at the basics of academy techniques more times in learning them than it took for others to grasp them. And he had been told by many to give up, and they also mocked his dream of becoming Hokage.

But he kept going against the tide. If he failed, he tried again. If he fell, he picked himself of the ground. Her admiration for him was maybe as large as his ambitions.

In other words, she was in love with him.

Yes, as unbelievable as it might sound, the quiet girl that spoke to no one was in love with the loud boy no one wanted to speak with! She didn't quite realize it yet, however, and classified whatever the emotion was that she felt for him as a deep admiration instead.

The thing is that she had…difficulties…even looking at him in the face. Her shy nature was a hindrance on every attempt she ever made at any sort of meaningful interaction with the boy.

So, when nobody was watching (granted, no one ever did) she would follow him around, observing him. Or if you prefer, stalking. But that word just doesn't suit a nice girl like Hinata. Let's just say she observed him in secret and think nothing more of it.

Unfortunately, since she had never been successful at communicating with Naruto, her role model didn't seem to take much notice of her. Yet he showed interest in Sakura, who wanted nothing to with him at all.

Naruto had to stay after class again today for clean-up. Hinata wondered if she should stick around, and try to talk to him again. Maybe this time, she might be successful.

After class was done for the day, Naruto was cleaning their classroom once again as punishment for being late today. It wasn't his fault! He tripped on that mat with junk that damn hobo left on the sidewalk! Just wait until he finds that guy again! Naruto couldn't help but chuckle when he thought of avenging himself. Oh, that was a good one. That hobo wouldn't know what him!

"Hey, Naruto, what are you planning now? Not another one of your pranks, I hope."

Blast, caught by Iruka-sensei! The troublemaking youth just scratched the back of his blond head and chuckled nervously. "Hehehehe…W-what do you mean, sensei?"

'_Yep, he's up to something'_, Iruka thought. "Okay Naruto, spill it. What are planning this time?"

Damn, he must be slipping; Naruto could usually conceal things better than this, at least when he was thinking of doing one of his tricks.

He'd definitely get that hobo later.

One ramen dinner later at Ichiraku's, Naruto was more than willing to forgive his teacher's punishment for him being late, even if he didn't tolerate the explanation about it not being his fault.

Now, to plan his revenge… wait, didn't that guy say he was going to make him something? Wonder what he would craft for him. Those small knives were kind of cool… _'Uugh, he was probably just saying that. Jerk.'_

Naruto went the same route he found that strange boy earlier. There weren't many people at this hour. He must have left already…wait, there he is! He's not going to get away!

"Hey you! WAIT UP!!" Naruto shouted as he ran to catch up to the figure retreating into the distance. It didn't take long; the other boy was just walking, and when Naruto called out to him, he stopped and turned towards the source of the voice.

"Oh, it's you. How you doing?" he said, as if speaking to an old acquaintance.

"Oh, I'm fine, why do you…HEY!!" Naruto suddenly remembered why he was after this guy. "I was late for class today because of you! Apologize, or else!!"

The other boy just blinked…and stared. "Umm, how is that my fault?" He asked, pointing at himself with his left hand's index finger. He had a raised eyebrow due to the absurdity of the situation, from what could be told; his long hair was still partially covering his eyes.

Naruto was getting annoyed at the hobo's attitude. '_The nerve of this guy!_' he thought. "I tripped on your stuff, and then waited for you to make me something! But you ignored me and kept me waiting while you sold your other crap left and right to everyone else!"

The artisan just blinked again. Then he sighed. "You know, you could have just come looking for me later. I would have made something for you then. And you wouldn't have been late for school either."

Of course, that last statement made Naruto feel like an idiot. He hated feeling like an idiot almost as much as he disliked cold ramen.

"If anything, you should be apologizing to me. It's only fair since you've been so rude to me for no good reason." He shook his head; this situation was just plain awkward. By now, Naruto was getting ready to pull the hairs from his own scalp in frustration.

With no other outlet available, Naruto tried to vent himself with the only possible target at the moment. "You…YOU…!!" The taller boy paid no mind to the irate blond. He took his large backpack and set it on the ground before opening up some compartments and then brought out a sketch pad, along with some pencils and an eraser.

"Tell you what. Since I need to restock on my other things I'm going to make you a sketch of… the third guy on that mountain. Free of charge too." The young artisan sat on the sidewalk, leaning against the wooden fence. And Naruto…didn't know what to do anymore.

Wasn't he supposed to be angry at this guy? And now the same hobo was going to make him a drawing of Sandaime-Jiji? Just like that? Of course, whatever irritation he might have possessed towards the long haired annoyance all but evaporated into thin air as he started scratching away at the paper in his sketchpad.

'_I give up' _thought the loud blond. _'I'll kick his ass some other time…' _The artisan worked much slower this time. In fact, he would stop at times, as if deciding what to do next, or if he should change this and that. Naruto stood there, watching him work. Then he sighed and just flopped down close to were he was standing. '_Well, he is making me something, so I guess he can't be that bad.' _

The formerly annoying boy (he had been annoying from Naruto's perspective) gave his latest creation one last once over before handing it to the loud blond. "Just make sure you buy a frame for it or at least get a sheet protector. I don't want it to get smudged, and you wouldn't either." When Naruto looked at the sketch in his hand, he almost had to make a conscious effort not to let his mouth gape. In his hands, he held a well done pencil drawing of a younger Sandaime Hokage, in old style shinobi garb, looking ready for battle. He wasn't alone. Behind him, stood a fierce looking monkey wearing a vest in his torso and a circlet of some sort in his brow. Both the Hokage and the monkey had long quarterstaff like weapons, poised for combat.

Naruto thought it was totally cool.

"I think I met this man in the hospital a while ago," said the young artisan. "He said his name was Sarutobi. 'Saru' means 'monkey', so it got me thinking of this guy. I even asked him if he used a bo staff for a weapon," the long haired youth said as he pointed to the fierce monkey. Naruto squinted a bit… and laughed at the mental image of Monkey-Sandaime-Jiji, eating bananas and scratching his armpit as well as other places that weren't quite decent to touch in public.

The other boy just looked at the blond with a mixture of confusion and amusement. He wondered if he should ask what was so funny. Instead, he opted for explaining about the simian warrior to this boy. "Hey, don't you know about the mighty Sun Wukong, the Monkey King? 'Cause that is who this guy is." A corner of his mouth curved upwards in a semblance of a smirk."

Naruto looked back to the person who made this super cool drawing of the Hokage. Monkey King? Sun Wukong? The blond boy shook his head. "Oh, he is also known as Son Goku, if that name is more familiar to you," the other boy answered Naruto's unasked question. "He's one of the protagonists of a story titled Journey to the West. You might want to check it out sometime."

Naru looked back at his new picture. He had never heard of that story. And he really didn't like the way some of the librarians treated him the last time he ever tried to step into the library. Maybe he could ask Hokage-Ojiisan about the story later. He definitely wanted to show him the picture that…this guy made.

Naruto decided to introduce himself to the person that gave him such an awesome drawing, any animosity he might have had all but forgotten. "Hey, I'm Uzumaki Naruto, future Hokage of Konoha! What's your name?" he said with a grin.

The long-haired boy snorted. "You're named after food? Man, you're unlucky!" Before Naruto could reply against that gratuitous barb about his name, he was interrupted by the arrival of a handful of medic-nin.

"There you are, young man! You were supposed to come back two hours ago!" The one in the lead said as the group approached the artisan.

Said boy turned to look at them. He had a somewhat guilty look from what could be seen of his face. "Sorry, but I had a lot of customers today…I barely finished maybe twenty minutes ago."

The medic-nin who spoke sighed. "We can discuss this later. Right now you are still ill, and until we can understand your condition better, it's not safe for you to stay out too long."

The young artisan broke eye contact and clenched his fists in frustration. He might have being putting too much pressure, as his hands were shaking slightly.

The medic continued. "I know the Hokage acceded to your requests, but I don't think he would tolerate it if you were to get into a situation where your health was compromised."

All the medic-nin stepped into action again. One of them went and took the large black and blue backpack, while the others ushered their wayward patient to move forward, with the one who spoke in the lead. "Let's get you back to your room. We want to confirm if the band has been working properly…"

Even as they escorted the boy back to the hospital, he still managed to look back towards were Naruto was and spoke. "Well, I guess I'll see you some other time then, Naruto-san," he said, waving to the blond, who was looking in confusion at the event happening in front of him. And with that, they left.

Back at his apartment, Naruto kept looking at the rather generous gift he got. And by a complete stranger no less. He wondered where he should go to get a frame for it. Maybe he could salvage one somewhere, in case he was unable to buy one in a store. Finding places that didn't throw him out was hard, since almost everyone in the village knew him. Maybe Sandaime Jijii would help him with that. He's sure to be happy to help when he sees the drawing made of him.

In any case, he never got the artist's name.

He was sick? He didn't look it, but those ninja with white uniforms said so, and the other boy didn't deny anything at all. Naruto almost started to panic when he wondered if whatever illness that guy might have could be contagious. But he relaxed after he figured that they wouldn't let him walk around if there was any danger of anyone else catching any sickness.

That morning, he mentioned that he had to pay for his hospital bill. In all honesty, Naruto didn't really take that seriously at first. But it had been true, especially if people from the hospital had gone looking for him.

And he had met Old Man Hokage too? That was curious on its own. Then again, if the old man saw fit to check up on Naruto when he did, maybe he would check on other kids, too. That seemed like something he would do.

Maybe he'd had the chance to meet him some other time. And get him back for making fun of his name! And maybe buy some knives from him the next chance he got.

Reviews with comments, suggestions and constructive criticism are appreciated. Flames and stupidity will be flushed down the White Charlie. You have been warned. Positive reviews and helpful suggestions will help me keep this story good. Enjoy.

Special thanks to XyoushaX and Paintball-Gamer for the beta work they did, and to my partner in crime Arganaut.


	3. Friendly Advice, and a Sandwich?

Disclaimer: I don't own anything that isn't mine. Naruto and all things created by Kishimoto Masashi or someone else are not mine. The only exceptions are everything else that does belong to me. Do I even have to write this anymore?

Now, before we get on with the story, I don't like using those lines for the scene breaks. Do you guys have any suggestions for better looking scene breaks that the site won't block? Also, I want to hear what you guys think about what I'm doing.

Chapter Two

Naruto didn't see the hobo artisan until after Graduation. Now, he did graduate, FINALLY. But… it wasn't under the most adequate or the safest circumstances, for him and his teacher, Umino Iruka. He failed the exam again. He actually failed the exam, all because he still couldn't perform the Bunshin no Jutsu.

So he found himself, for the third time, looking dejectedly at everyone else who graduated, being congratulated left and right by their family and friends. He looked at them, but they didn't look at him, sitting alone in an old swing in a tree shade, as downcast as he had ever been.

It just wasn't fair.

Sure, two women did make some comments about him. They were strangely relieved that Naruto _didn't_ pass. He never heard them though, but later that night, he would know why people like them treated him the way they did.

He had never expected Mizuki to do what he did. The silver haired teacher had come to him under the pretext of discussing some things. When he told Naruto of a secret way to graduate, the boy eagerly did as his teacher said.

Naruto snuck into the Hokage tower and stole a very important scroll that contained powerful techniques. He was told to take the scroll to a place Mizuki selected, and there Naruto had to learn at least one technique from the scroll so he could pass.

He almost pulled out his hairs when he read the name of the first technique - Tajuu Kage Bunshin. Another clone technique?! His luck couldn't have been that bad! Still, he set out to work on that technique, until he finally mastered it.

Things went downhill when Umino Iruka found him. The Academy instructor knew something was wrong when Naruto told him that Mizuki was the one who instructed him to take the Forbidden Scroll, and had to save Naruto from a barrage of kunai thrown by the traitor when he finally showed himself.

And then, the wounded Iruka found himself powerless to stop Mizuki from divulging the true fate of the Nine-tailed Fox.

Instead of killing the demon at the expense of his life like Naruto and everyone of his generation had been told, the Yondaime Hokage, Naruto's role model aside from old Sarutobi, was forced to seal the demon away instead.

It was sealed into a baby born on that same day, October the tenth, whose umbilical cord had just been cut. It was sealed into Naruto.

However, Mizuki didn't break Naruto for long with the devastating truth, especially after Iruka came clean and confessed how much he supported Naruto. In the end, just as the traitor was about to take Iruka's life, Naruto stepped in to save his teacher. Mizuki flaunted about his superior skill in comparison to the foolish dropout, but it was all for naught.

The traitor had screamed like a little girl when hundreds of Narutos descended upon him and started using him as a punching bag.

Iruka awarded Naruto for his accomplishment by graduating him, removing the green goggles his student wore and giving him his own Hitai-ite.

It was an interesting few days after that. He met Konohamaru, Hokage Ojisan's grandson, who wanted to be Hokage too. Hah! Naruto would be able to take him when the time comes. At least that's what he thought. He was especially proud of making the younger child's arrogant tutor fly through the air from a massive nosebleed after using his newly patented Harem technique.

Don't ask, just don't ask. All will be answered shortly.

You see, Naruto had developed a modified version of the transformation technique in order to prey on the perverseness of many of the adult males around the village. It was freaking hilarious in his opinion, watching them go into shock from watching a sexy young girl with nothing but clouds covering her substantial assets and acting all coy. And the nosebleeds they got!

Combined with his new clone technique, it was the ultimate perverted jutsu.

Hey, the kid is attention starved, and his Oiroke and Harem techniques don't fail to get attention, unwanted or otherwise. And the Sandaime Hokage is already toying with the idea of adding it to the Forbidden scroll for being a potentially dangerous forbidden technique.

Sarutobi's dignity did not come out unscathed after the young prankster used his technique on him. That alone made it dangerous.

Today was the day of team assignments. Instead of roof hopping like he normally would when he wanted to get somewhere quickly or avoid the glares (which had now been demystified), he walked at ground level. He did this every other day, in order to meet again with the mysterious artisan who made him a sketch of the old Hokage.

And he hit the jackpot this time.

There were about as many people around as the last time, even a couple of people he knew from his class, who bought something and went on their way. He was wearing something similar to what he had on last time, except it was the shirt that was gray and the pants that were black. His hair was a bit longer, and he had tied it in a braid. And the bangs still covered his eyes.

He looked a bit pale, too. Maybe he was let out of the hospital recently.

He had a lot more knives in display than the last time too. Naruto wondered if he made those too. But instead of making conversation, he went on his way. He didn't want to be late again, not because of this guy whose name he didn't know yet.

"Feh…I'll buy some of those knives later. Guess I'll have to go without eating much ramen for supper," said Naruto.

He would find the artisan again. Maybe he could even ask Ojisan to help if he somehow disappeared.

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"I can't believe Kakashi-sensei wants us to forget about breakfast tomorrow…" the blond grumbled that afternoon.

To say Naruto's day had been interesting would have been an understatement. He had both the misfortune and good luck to end up with the same team as both the jerk Sasuke and the beautiful Sakura.

Then, during lunch, he managed to tie up Sasuke and used henge to look like him and talk to Sakura. He almost kissed her too!

He would have if his stomach hadn't started to cramp up. Violently. He thought that milk he drank that morning tasted funny. When he got out of the bathroom, Sasuke was already free! So Naruto formed a handful of Kage Bunshins to kick the crap out of the arrogant jerk. He wouldn't beat him again, not this time!

And then his stomach started cramping violently again. And embarrassingly enough, Naruto and his clones tried to go to the bathroom at the same time.

Kakashi-sensei had them waiting for three hours. Three hours! But he got him back. So much for being an elite shinobi. Couldn't even dodge an eraser jammed in the door. Got him right in that ridiculous silver broom he calls hair.

They went somewhere else, where Kakashi asked his new students to introduce themselves. Sakura got him to talk first, but all they learned of any importance was his name. The introduction of the only female of Team 7 was about as much as one could expect from a fan girl. She blushed and giggled a lot as she talked about her likes and dreams for the future, and although she didn't finish those sentences, from the way she directed her gaze at Sasuke, it wouldn't take much to guess what they were about.

But she didn't mince words when she said she hated Naruto.

Sasuke was as angsty and frigid as they come, saying he liked nothing and disliked a lot of things. Said his great ambition in life was to kill a certain person. Naruto worried for his own safety, and Sakura was becoming more enamored of the black-haired Uchiha because of his "coolness". Kakashi wasn't impressed.

Naruto's likes and dislikes were as simple and straightforward as could be expected from him. He liked ramen, and he disliked the three minutes it took for instant ramen to cook. At least that's what he said. And he wanted to become Hokage and get everyone's respect and admiration.

Kakashi thought he turned out mildly interesting. But otherwise, he was still unimpressed by any of his students. Even the acclaimed Uchiha genius wasn't anything to look at twice in his opinion.

The newly appointed genin were surprised that they weren't done yet in order to become official ninja. Their new instructor told them the true purpose of the Academy exam was to weed the incompetents and leave only those who _might_ stand a chance to become true ninja. It was the jounin sensei who decided if their assigned students were fit to wear those headbands of theirs.

His new genin would have panicked if they had known that every other student that ever got assigned to Hatake Kakashi had failed his test quite miserably. Even the normally stoic Uchiha would have been worried, even if he tried to cover it.

He dismissed them for the day, telling them to forgo breakfast unless they wanted to throw up on the test.

By now, Naruto would have already been to his apartment to work out his frustrations against their scarecrow of a sensei. But he went to find the artisan boy again to buy those cool knives, if he still had any left. Maybe he'd get to use them against Kakashi sensei tomorrow, just in case he needed something extra aside from the shuriken or kunai he already carried.

Even if he didn't, the engravings were still freaking sweet. He just hoped he still had some left.

The boy was still there, sitting on that spot in the sidewalk he was at this morning, his latest customer just finished purchasing something. Naruto didn't have to shout out this time, since the boy turned to him as he approached. "I was wondering why you didn't stop by this morning, Naruto-san. Didn't want to be late again, huh?" he said, looking at the blond.

"I still think it was your fault…" grumbled Naruto, remembering that day. "Hey, you know what? I told you my name, but I never got to hear yours." Naruto nodded. It was rude not to give your name to someone who already knew yours, the young demon vessel thought to himself.

The brown haired boy snorted a bit. "Yeah, didn't have a chance to. Those guys from the hospital were quite pushy. I'm going to have to pack up earlier today, since I don't want to get locked in my room," The artisan gave a low chuckle in amusement to his 'plight'.

Naruto crossed his arms in annoyance. "Yeah, yeah, you still haven't given me your name, you hobo!" The 'hobo' just blinked, mouthed the word Naruto called him and then…

He gave a short bark of laughter.

"Hah, ha ha ha…That's a new one! And I've been called a lot of names before, but you have got to be the first to call me hobo." He brought his left hand through his bangs, uncovering a better portion of his face, showing a dark, jagged mark that went from beneath his eye and ended at a point in the edge of his jaw. "I've been called 'crybaby' because of this. Jerks kept saying my mascara was running for being such a weepy baby…tcheh, as if I wore any makeup." The amused boy let his bangs fall back into their former place, giving a soft chuckle at the somewhat annoyed expression on the blond boy's face.

Naruto sighed in exasperation "Okay, I get it. People made fun of you and called you names. But what is _your REAL name?!"_ This guy…was kind of annoying. He was a heck of a whole lot less annoying than Kakashi-sensei, though. Naruto couldn't decide who he'd rather deal with, but considering his new sensei's aloofness, he was leaning towards dealing with this guy instead.

The artisan finally replied to the blond boy's rather frustrated question. "Oh? My name is Orion. I would say it's a pleasure to meet you, but I guess it isn't mutual at all," Orion said, referring to the other boy's annoyance.

Naruto cocked his head to one and gave his trademark foxish squint. "O…rion? What kind of weird name is that?" he asked. That name sounded very foreign to him. At least, it didn't sound like anything he had ever around the village. Come to think of it, he couldn't' remember seeing this boy before a week and a half ago. If he had been a local, Naruto might have come across him much earlier.

"What kind of a name is it? Ask my mother, she's the one who gave it to me. I think it's a lot cooler than being named after a ramen topping, in my opinion." He nodded in approval of his own statement.

Naruto didn't take that last barb very well. "Ramen topping…? So what?! I happen to like ramen and my name!!!" The ramen lover crossed his arms and huffed in annoyance, reconsidering his decision of not kicking the crap out of a sick person by now. Screw the super cool knives!

Upon seeing the irate boy's current mood, Orion decided to do something before someone got hurt. And it wouldn't be him. "I… I apologize for making fun of your name. But you do know that a 'naruto' is one of those swirly fish things they put in ramen, don't you? I would be surprised if no one had ever called you 'ramen topping' or something else before."

At the latest mention of ramen, Naruto's stomach started growling like a beast. '_Whoa, talk about bad timing,' _thought Naruto. He held on to his belly, embarrassment showing in his face. At least it wasn't because of the bad milk this time, but that proved to be of little comfort.

Orion shook his head slightly. He went to his humongous backpack and took out…a foot long sandwich wrapped in foil? Naruto's stomach growled again. The long haired boy took half of it and offered the other one to the hungry Uzumaki.

"No offense, but hospital food isn't _that_ good. And nothing beats a good old steak sandwich in a pinch. Unless you are a vegetarian or got something against red meat," Orion said as the short blond took his portion. "Um, you don't have…anything…against red meat, do you?"

If Naruto heard him, he made no indication whatsoever. He was too busy drooling over the sandwich in his hands. Okay, he's done drooling, and now he is eating it. Naruto was very hungry. He didn't even care that it was fully loaded down to the salad. It wasn't ramen, but it was _good_.

Orion, however, stared at the blond devouring his sandwich like a starved wolf, and started eating his own portion at a more sedate pace, fully intending on enjoying his food before his eating buddy took it from his hands.

It had gotten pretty slow today, and he probably wouldn't have a customer or two for a few hours, unless you counted Naruto, but he still had to purchase something to qualify as a one. "Hey, what happened to your goggles?" Orion asked, still eating his sandwich. In fact, the short blond was wearing some green goggles on his head the last time he saw him so many days ago. Now, he was wearing a blue headband with a metal plate that had the village insignia inscribed on the surface. He had seen some other people wear it, usually adults and some older kids. "And why are you wearing that headband?"

Naruto readjusted his headband with his right hand (his left one had what was left of the steak sandwich) and beamed with pride. "Nice, isn't it? I got it when I graduated from the Academy! Soon, I'm going to go on super cool ninja missions! Pretty amazing, huh?" However, he had to scowl when he saw the slightly unbelieving expression in Orion's face, from what could be seen of it, at least. "What, you don't believe me?! I didn't get this headband from a cereal box, you know!" said the offended blond.

"…You do know you have orange clothes on, right?" Orion asked, wondering if the guy sitting beside him was colorblind. Naruto's clothes were an orange-colored jumpsuit composed of an orange jacket and pants. The jacket had a block of blue in his upper chest area, shoulders and back. But that was about it. His sweater's neck was zipped up to the top. The collar was white, standing up completely and around his neck. The most noteworthy aspect of his ensemble would have to be strange emblem on his left shoulder. It was a circle with a swirling groove, with two parallel cylinders as long as the diameter of the circle they framed. Hanging from the cylinders was a much smaller rod, attached by a string to the bottom of each of the two bigger ones.

All in all, it was a very bright ensemble, and not the kind of thing any ninja, no matter how inexperienced, should be wearing, unless they wanted to get killed in a very embarrassing way.

Naruto stared at the long haired boy. "Yeah, what of it?" he asked. "You have a problem with my clothes or something?" The artisan boy didn't say anything, and went back to eating his food. However, his 'customer' decided to press him. "What's the matter? I'm asking you if you've got a problem with my clothes!"

"…I didn't expect the standards of this village's ninja to be that low," Orion mumbled, hoping that the somewhat volatile boy wouldn't go off his rocker in case he heard that comment. Fortunately, he didn't quite catch it. That's one less headache to worry about.

"Huh, what's that you said? I didn't hear you," said the fledgling shinobi, totally unaware of the insult thrown in his direction. Then again, he was…occupied, thinking of what to drink after that good sandwich he just ate.

"Well, aren't ninjas supposed to be, you know, _stealthy_? As in, sneak around without being noticed by anyone at all?" Orion asked as if it was the most obvious thing.

"Yeah, so what's your point?" Naruto asked, wondering what was so wrong about his clothes. People called him annoying no matter what he wore anyways, and his teachers at the academy didn't really comment much, if at all, when he started wearing the orange jumpsuit. Kakashi-sensei didn't remark about his clothes. His two teammates wore blues, whites, and in Sakura's case, reds, and their new teacher didn't comment on their attire either.

"Well, bright colors are used when you want to be found. For a ninja, that's not good. It will make you more likely to die on a dangerous mission. How old are you anyways?" he asked the orange-wearing blond next to him. Orion was still unfamiliar with a lot of things, but it seemed that they trained ninja from a young age in this village. He was a little concerned about Naruto, as young as he seemed to be.

"I'm twelve years old, why do you ask?" Scratch that, he looked much younger than he really was. He looked like he was nine, ten tops.

"You know, what you eat also affects how you perform on missions or many other things. Like going for a day without eating any breakfast? Not pretty, let me tell you." Orion looked at the last of his sandwich, before putting the whole piece in his mouth. After he finished eating, he continued. "So you understand me now? Not eating right and not dressing right can get a ninja killed. And I doubt your parents would like it if you died because you didn't eat or dress properly." There, he's not going to comment on Naruto's height. Many short people had issues with their size, so it was better not to be too direct about it. Hopefully, it was a nutrition issue and not something else.

Naruto was suddenly downcast, breaking all eye contact with Orion. "I don't have any parents…"

An awkward silence followed.

The long-haired boy decided to amend his mistake by talking about something else. "…Did you put the picture in a frame like I told you?" Diversionary tactics always work like charms in the right situations.

That made the brooding blond perk up again. "Yeah, I showed it to Hokage Ojiisan, and he got me a frame for it. He really liked it!" Naruto grinned a bit when he remembered showing the drawing of the Sandaime Hokage to the man himself. The old Hokage had been a bit surprised when Naruto asked him the same question as the boy who drew the sketch about him being able to use a bo-staff for a weapon. "…And he even said that he was surprised about you knowing of this Monkey King guy. He said it was a very old story, and not many people read it anymore." Not that the blond would ever have the chance to read it. He avoided the library as much as he could. He didn't like putting up with the jerks who worked there.

Orion had to sigh in relief. "Too bad. It's a good story. I'm going to have to check it again sometime, maybe make some carvings of the characters as well. But…I'd like to cast them out of metal. They'll be more durable than a wood carving, even if they are heavier to carry." He leaned back against the fence, looking upwards at the clouds. Foot traffic was starting to pick up, but no one was really stopping to buy something. Oh, they were glancing in his direction, but one look at Naruto and they just went on their way. The way things were going, it seems that the blond loudmouth would truly be his last customer of the day. But he still needed to buy something.

"Hey, do you got some of those knives left?" That takes care of that. "I want to buy them, please," asked the fledgling ninja.

Bingo. "Sure I got some left," Orion said, looking around his backpack. "But can I ask you what you want to do with them?" If he was as careless with his weapons as he was with his clothing, he wouldn't be held responsible if this kid poked his own eyes out.

Naruto frowned and crossed his arms in front of his chest, looking the other way, saying nothing. He did however mumble something about 'stupid scarecrow sensei', as far as the peddling artisan could tell. "Why do you want to know what I'm going to use them for?" _'Not that it's any of your business,_' thought Naruto bitterly.

"Just curious, that's all. I'd have to advise against using them in an actual fight." Now the blond boy looked at him in confusion.

"What?! Why?!" Naruto asked in his usual volume. He was looking forward to chucking those throwing knives at that jerk of a sensei, then at Sasuke!

"While they can do some damage, they are made to be used for practice. So in an actual fight they might not cut it," Orion said. "Besides, there's a trick to use them…but you were talking about a scarecrow. Why would a scarecrow make you so upset that you'd want to 'kill' him with these?"

Naruto looked at him in confusion again. Then he grumbled. "It's not a real scarecrow, just my stupid jounin sensei…I can't stand the guy!" the blond complained.

"Does he look like a scarecrow then?" Orion just had to ask. Maybe the man was somewhat lanky, which might explain the scarecrow comment.

"His name is Kakashi" Naruto replied. "And he does kinda look like a scarecrow," he added as an afterthought

Orion shook his head, before he started packing up his things. Then he asked, "Are a lot of people in this village absolutely nuts when naming their kids?"

Naruto looked at him strangely, but said nothing.

"Follow me; you can tell me later. But now, let's get something to drink. Milk sound good to you?" he said, before hefting his bag on his shoulders. He started walking away, and Naruto took notice he was using an odd shaped black cane. "Hey, you coming or not? I'm paying, you know."

They went to a nearby grocery store to get some milk cartons. The proprietors of the place were sending strange looks at Naruto, causing him to fidget a bit. However, they were missing the looks the long-haired boy was sending at them under his bangs.

In any case, Orion paid for his purchases and went back to his spot in the sidewalk where he did business. For some odd reason, a lot of the people passing by just sent a look at Naruto, and went on their way, a disgusted expression on their faces pretty much every single time. Many of those that did stop to buy some of his wares seemed to be quite nervous about the blond boy sitting beside him.

That didn't stop the peddler from asking Naruto about his day. The short blond met his new jounin sensei today. From his descriptions of the man's behavior, he could somewhat understand why he was so pissed at his new teacher. "Your new teacher, what rank is he at?"

Naruto scoffed, wondering if the guy beside him had memory problems. "Don't you remember? He's supposed to be a jounin, for all the good it did him… couldn't even dodge the eraser I jammed between the door and the frame…"

"I mean, was he a low level Jounin, middle, high, super high, what?" Orion asked before downing some of the milk from his carton. He had gotten an explanation about the ninja ranks a while ago in the hospital. He was very curious about the healing techniques some of the medic ninja had used to heal his body, and that led to a conversation about the use of chakra in healing and medical techniques and how they differed from the more offensive ninja techniques and attacks.

He also learned about the ranking system in the shinobi forces as well. The lowest rank was genin, which is what Naruto should be right now. After genin came the chuunin rank. These were the 'average' ninjas, if a term like average could ever be applied to a ninja in these parts. After that came the jounin. This is what Naruto's new teacher was supposed to be. They were the elite, the crème of the crop, the best the village had to offer. Then highest was the kage level, the strongest among the strong. The old man he first met upon regaining consciousness held this rank, and had done so for many years if his age was any indication. If he was still formidable at his age, he wondered how strong he was in his prime.

Naruto closed his eyes, scrunched his face slightly and crossed his arms. The grunt-like sound he uttered could only signify that he was entering his thinking mode. It doesn't seem like he uses it much. He looked uncomfortable. "Urrm… I don't…really know?"

Orion blinked, and disbelief settled on what could be seen of his face. "…What do you know about the guy?" he asked. This was starting to get ridiculous.

"Umm…well…I know his name…" said Naruto, before taking a gulp from his own bottle.

Orion had to palm his face. This wasn't just ridiculous, it was bordering on ludicrous. "Naruto-san, you are screwed."

Naruto nearly spit out a mouthful of his own carton at that last sentence. "What?! Why do you say that?" the Uzumaki boy protested loudly. Orion just wondered if he should help the kid out, or if he should just let him learn this lesson on his own. "That guy's so lame! Why would he give me any trouble, you jerk?!" Letting him learn on his own it is.

"Oh? You'll see when you take that test of his tomorrow. I don't know the guy, but from what I've heard, you can't become a jounin on hot air alone. If you were to fight him, he'd probably own you without even trying."

By now, Naruto was close to seething in anger. How could his lame sensei be able to 'own him', like this guy says? Heck, that Ebisu guy who was Konohamaru's tutor was a jounin too, and Naruto had been able to take him down with no problem!

Of course, it wouldn't do for Naruto to stay quiet against this boy who dared to doubt the future Hokage of Konoha. "That's a load of crap! How could somebody so lame he couldn't even dodge an eraser jammed between the door and the frame be able to beat me?!"

Orion just had to shake his head at the absurdity of the blond's statements and seeming stupidity. "Oh? You mean aside from the fact that he might have done it on purpose to make you underestimate him like you are right now, or the fact that you know nothing about him aside from his name, Naruto-san? Take your pick," he said rather nonchalantly. If the rookie ninja didn't wise up, he was going to end up with his head handed to him on a silver platter. Frequently. And quite painfully.

Then again, as thick-headed as Naruto seemed to be, that might be a challenge.

Outside, Naruto tried to keep up an angry front. But inside, a little bit of doubt had taken root. Then he started to actually consider the words spoken to him by this guy beside him, which others who knew him would consider nothing short of an outright miracle. Ebisu might have sucked, but Kakashi? He hadn't seen the scarecrow in action yet. And he had been tricked by a teacher before… Consequently, the memories of the traitor Mizuki were all that he needed to squash his doubts a bit and strike back.

"Bullshit," the irate genin uttered. "You'll see! There's no way I'm going to fail Kakashi-sensei's crummy test!! And I don't care if he is a jounin; if I have to fight him, I'm going to beat him!" He pointed an accusing right index finger at the fool who dared to doubt him.

Orion just stared unflinchingly at the display of the smaller boy. This only aggravated Naruto further. The face of the blond was starting to develop an annoyed twitch. A vein throbbing on his temple wouldn't have been out of place, if the boy's leaf headband had not been covering his entire brow.

'_Talk about easily excitable__,'_ though Orion. _'Guess I'm not going to make friends with this guy any time soon…'_ He took in a deep breath and let it all out before proceeding to calm down the blond boy or shut him up, whichever was more convenient. His loud voice was starting to give the young artisan a headache. "Calm down, Naruto-san; I didn't say you couldn't pass this test of his. I only meant that there's no way a fresh graduate like you could beat a jounin in a fight." Naruto of course tried to disagree internally, having 'bested' that annoying Ebisu with his Harem technique, but then his doubts about Kakashi threatened to resurface again.

Orion continued on. "Hopefully, the test is some sort of skills assessment that every teacher is supposed to give their students."

"Skills…Assessment…?" Naruto thought he had heard that term before, or something close to it at the Academy. Of course, Naruto missed out on a lot of the things said in the Leaf Ninja Academy. Back then, he didn't think it important to listen to the 'boring stuff' the instructors at the academy spouted. "What do you mean?" he asked. For someone who wasn't a ninja, this 'O-li-on' guy seemed to know a lot.

"…It's a part of how a teacher gets to know their students; you know, what they are good at, and what they need help with and that kind of stuff. You guys just got assigned to him, and he probably doesn't know much about you guys, aside from whatever information they might have given him from the Academy. So he might use the test tomorrow to fix that." Naruto looked a bit apprehensive at the thought of what the information of the Academy might say about him. "Of course, he might still humiliate you guys. I don't have a clue what you're in for tomorrow. We still don't know enough about the guy to be sure of anything."

Naruto all but growled in his displeasure of the situation. "Gee, thanks a lot! That puts us right back were we started," he said before gulping down what was left of his drink.

"You're welcome. Say, can you show me the weapons you have on you already? I want to check them out." Naruto complied with the unusual request, wondering why he would want to see his kunai and shuriken. Orion examined them as soon as they were handed to him. He had a serious expression on his face. "…How long have you had these?"

The new genin responded to the question, strange as it might be. "Not long, I had to replace most of them some time ago."

After he was done checking Naruto's kunai and shuriken, Orion handed them back to their owner. "Do you have anything else aside from these kunai and shuriken? You don't, do you? If you did, you'd be carrying it with you, unless you left it at home?" Naruto just shook his head.

"I don't have any other weapons aside from what I showed you. Why, do you have anything better?" he asked, wondering if Orion did have something better than those small throwing knives. Considering the size of his pack, he was hopeful that he would.

"I could probably make butter knives better than those pieces of scrap metal you have with my eyes closed. I can tell that you have to sharpen them a lot to keep them functional. "

"Yeah, that's right! How did you know?" Naruto couldn't keep the surprise out of his features when the artisan just told him pretty much what he did to keep his ninja weapons functional. Of course, this only made him curious as to how he could tell the quality of the metal just by looking at it.

"I like working with metals. It's not as easy as banging the stuff with a hammer until you get a sword. If you don't know how to judge the quality of what you're working with, you could end up making a katana that you could be snapped in half like it was a toothpick. Not only is that bad for business, but the client ends up dead. That's a lot worse. How much did you pay for those, Naruto-san?"

Naruto looked away, embarrassed by the question. "Why do you care what I paid for my stuff?!" he said, almost muttering it unintelligibly. He usually had to save up for a while to replenish his arsenal, which normally meant limiting his dinners at Ichiraku and buying less and less of the instant crap he had to eat a lot of the time. Then he usually ended up with a very empty wallet after his shopping. "It's none of your business!" he said, glaring at the other boy.

If Orion had reacted to the blond's sudden mood change, he didn't show, and Naruto wondered if he should ask the guy to get his hair cut. Those bangs were really in the way, even if the peddler didn't seem to mind or be affected by it. Instead, he searched his pack again, this time he brought out his last dagger set. They were a type of small throwing knives that some shinobi used. However, they widened up somewhat in the tip, making it look leaf shaped in the sharp edges. There were only twelve, enough for four volleys of three. They all had identical engravings in them.

"At the moment, I don't have anything better than these guys over here. Tell you what; bring me your old kunai and shuriken that you don't use anymore or try to salvage those that have been scrapped by others if you can. I'll rework them for you. I'll also need the metal to make more of these knives; maybe I'll make something even better. That sounds okay to you?" he asked, ignoring the bewildered expression in Naruto's face at the extremely generous offer.

"Huh? Y-yeah…say, how much do I have to pay for them?" He hoped it wouldn't be much. Naruto wanted to save enough to buy replacements for his weapons when the time came. So he took out Gama-chan and pulled out some ryou notes.

Orion decided to give him half price off for his first purchase. Just this once.

Not that long afterwards, Naruto left with his new weapons, saying his thanks to their maker, regardless how infuriating he had gotten at times, at least in his opinion. Despite the amount of ryou he did fork over to pay, he still had enough for ramen at Ichiraku's. His day was looking better by the moment, even if it was nearing sundown.

Business started picking up a bit more after Naruto left. It had been a slow day, anyways, but Orion didn't like where some of his thoughts concerning the behavior of others towards his acquaintance were taking him. Still, he had to pack up before those 'hospital busybodies' went on a manhunt for him.

He was stopped when he noticed a young, dark haired girl with unusually pale eyes, wearing a beige colored jacket that concealed her form. She had her own leaf headband around her neck, and from her age and wardrobe, Orion guessed she was a genin like Naruto.

However, in contrast with the other boy, who spoke like he was confident about everything to the point where he would react somewhat…aggressively… whenever he was put on the spot about his skill (or lack thereof), this girl's demeanor was almost painfully shy, insecure even.

"Hello there, are you a friend of Naruto-san's?" he asked.

No response. The girl was fidgeting a bit, as if she were very uncomfortable. Orion looked to her eyes, hoping to find answers…but she quickly turned away from his gaze. Hesitantly, she walked forward, keeping her eyes on the ground. She then took a small cloth bundle and gave it to the peddler.

When he opened it, he found several earrings and necklaces in it, all made by him. From the faint smells some of them had, it seemed they had been thrown in the trash. "Where did you find these?"

When he turned to look at the quiet girl again, she was bowing to him. Why? "I-I-I'm so sorry… Some girls th-threw them away… th-they were s-so nice that…"

Orion frowned. He was no stranger to what shallow people would do at times. Those girls who bought them before probably tossed them to the trash bin because they couldn't catch the eye of some boy with their new accessories. And they were all made by hand, too. His pride in his craftsmanship was stung somewhat at the way his merchandise had probably being treated.

They were lucky he wasn't much into 'creative vengeance'. Very, very lucky. He had a very good memory for detail; he had to, since some of his pieces were based on actual people he saw. As such, he remembered the faces of his customers and what they bought from him quite well. This girl did a very nice thing by salvaging his pieces, so why did she act like it was all her fault?

"Hey, what's your name?" he asked. He really should get going, but he wanted to at least know the name of this shy thing that did him a favor. And maybe make something for her at a later date to show his gratitude.

"A-anoo… My name i-is Hinata… Hy-hyuuga Hinata," she stuttered out in reply.

"Hinata, eh? Nice to meet you, my name's Orion." He then held out his hand in greeting. She accepted the gesture, rather hesitantly, however, prompting him to raise an eyebrow. "Thank you for bringing me these back. It's always a pain when some idiot tosses them to the trash for stupid reasons. Especially after the effort I put into making them."

Again, Hinata seemed to be uncomfortable for some reason. She bowed in acknowledgement, but kept on looking downwards.

"Hinata-san, is there anything I can help you with?" the long-haired boy asked. The girl in question said nothing, merely shaking her head. However, she was taken off-guard by the next question asked of her. "If you wanted to talk to Naruto-san, he went that way not too long ago. You might still catch him if you hurry."

Hinata seemingly froze for a second or two. Suddenly, she bowed down and muttered something under her breath that sounded like an apology. Then she went back the way she came at a hurried pace.

'_What…was that about?'_ the lone artisan wondered. Before he could deliberate further, he checked his pocket watch. He had to pack up and leave before they sent another 'search party' again for him.

Even on the way to the hospital, he couldn't shake the feeling of familiarity on his mind. That girl's behavior, as subdued as it was, unearthed old memories that he hadn't thought about in a long while, some of them not pleasant… He would worry about that at later date. Right now, he really had to go.

Getting sick really sucked, in his opinion. He would never understand why anyone would ever want to fake illness to skip school or avoid appointments or whatever stupid reason they might use to justify themselves. In fact, Orion found it highly insulting. He would be sorely tempted to hit someone upside the head for even considering faking sickness.

Of course, he might be just a tad bit grouchy from being nearly dead on his feet as he was. That hospital bed was starting to look very appealing right about now. He just hoped he could fall asleep before the well-meaning hospital personnel tried to stuff his face with hospital food. Well, at least the gelatin is good.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With nothing better to do, Naruto went back to what could laughingly be called his home.

It was a small apartment that had been given to him a couple of years ago, the reasons why unknown to any, save the Hokage. He lived alone.

He wished the artisan could have gone to the Ichiraku ramen stand with him, but for some reason it wouldn't have felt right to try and empty his pockets to pay for the ramen. He did say last time that he needed the money to pay for his hospital bill. He didn't understand this very well. The times he had been to the Konoha Hospital he hadn't been asked to pay anything, but he suspected that the Old Man had something to do with it.

He wondered why Sandaime-Ojiisan didn't extend the same courtesy to the boy. He resolved to ask him later.

Speaking of the 'hobo', he never told Naruto the supposed trick behind using his new throwing knives. That meant he would have to track him down again.

And if he had been lying, he'd have to answer for deceiving him in the first place! By shoving those throwing knifes where the sun don't shine, no less!

Naruto decided to do something productive in preparation of tomorrow's test and train. Of course, his training seemed to center around beating an old practice dummy modified to look like Kakashi and kicking the stuffing out of it with his shadow clones.

It was supposed to be "image training", but more likely, he was trying to blow off some leftover aggravation from the day.

He took no prisoners when testing his newest acquisitions. After all, if they were for practice, it would only be appropriate to turn Dummy Kakashi into a pincushion with them. Even if he didn't bring them with him tomorrow, he might try to emulate the positions where he threw them with his kunai and shuriken.

He took them out of the dummy and looked them over. The engravings were thin lines etched into the metal. They formed a complex pattern that resembled a thorny leaf or an impossibly symmetric flame tongue. In the middle was a circle, which upon closer inspection turned out to be a whole array of odd symbols arranged to look like a circle, with a larger one in the center.

Despite their maker's insistence that they were made to be practice weapons, the small knives were still sharp enough to draw blood. Nevertheless, Naruto wondered what the trick to using them was. Aside from the engravings, they weren't that different from any other standard throwing blades in a shinobi's arsenal.

In any case, it was time to get to sleep. Tomorrow he was going to kick butt and pass that crummy test of Kakashi's! And so he entered the world of his dreams, where he was the greatest ever, and he could feast on ramen to his heart's content.

The next morning, Naruto awoke and got ready to go to the meeting place. But when he was about to go out the door without any breakfast like Kakashi instructed, certain parts of his conversation with the artisan the day before stuck to his mind.

"_You know, what you eat also affects how you perform on missions or many other things. Like going for a day without eating any breakfast? Not pretty, let me tell you."_

"_Oh? You mean aside from the fact that he might have done it on purpose to make you underestimate him like you are right now, or the fact that you know nothing about him aside from his name, Naruto-san?"_

He wondered if the long haired boy knew anything about what he was in for, but knew it couldn't be the case. However, Naruto had once gone a whole day without eating a long time ago, and it wasn't an experience he cared to repeat. It was weird how that comment about eating came out of nowhere, though, even if it did remind him of that time when he almost starved to death.

That didn't mean that he wasn't worried by it now, especially when the implications of the other comment set in. The mere suggestion that Kakashi had been pulling his leg yesterday had left him a bit apprehensive about following his instructor's orders. That was understandable, seeing as the last teacher who tricked him tried to kill him and the closest thing he had to a father, and that wasn't something that he wanted a repeat of.

His stomach reacted to the line of thought about food by voicing a loud complaint about Kakashi's instructions. That was all that the boy needed to go back inside and purposely disobey the scarecrow.

He wasn't about to be made a fool of again.

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Had Naruto known that the other teams only received ordinary skills assessment the day before, at least depending on their teachers, instead of the survival exercise he was going to take this day, he might have decided to take his practice knives and conveniently aim them at Kakashi's manhood. Well, maybe not, but he would have been thoroughly pissed nonetheless.

Hinata was preparing for the day's activities as quickly and efficiently as propriety allowed. Despite being assigned to a different team than Naruto, she was glad that she was assigned to Yuuhi Kurenai. She had known the jounin for a few years now, ever since she was just a chuunin that happened to have been assigned to escort her to the academy several times in the past. She never wondered why a Branch member had not been assigned to the task; sadly, she always just assumed that the resources of the family were not to be wasted on a failure like her.

Still, she couldn't spare the time to indulge in such negative thoughts. After all, the sooner she left, the lesser the chance that she would bump into her father or any of the council members on the way out, not that any of them lingered around just to be in her presence. She didn't feel like meeting the scorn and shame that always simmered in their eyes almost every time they looked at her. In any case, she didn't feel like any of that today, even if she normally avoided meeting the gazes of others.

She left for the appointed meeting site to get together with her sensei and her two teammates. Thankfully, she didn't meet with any angry stares, and most of the Hyuuga Branch house members were at least quietly respectful, so she left her Clan's compound without any fuss.

On the way, she wondered how Naruto was doing. He and his teammates had been left in the classroom waiting when Kurenai-sensei came to pick her new students up. She wondered what type of teacher Naruto was assigned to. As a member of the Cell that preceded hers, it was odd that she and her team had left before his sensei. For all intents and purposes, his team should have been picked up before hers was. Then again, maybe his instructor was just running a bit late.

Of course, Hinata hasn't had the pleasure, or the misfortune as the case may be, of meeting with the incomparable Hatake Kakashi as of yet.

Thinking of Naruto, her thoughts wandered seemingly of their own accord to yesterday's… encounter. About a week or so ago, she witnessed as several of her former female classmates tried to gain the Uchiha heir's attention. They did this by showing of some accessory or jewelry they had apparently bought to try and impress him once more, as it was common for them to do a lot of the time.

As always, he ignored their advances. She didn't know whether to pity or sorry for those silly kunoichi due to the things they were willing to do to capture the heart of the only survivor of the Uchiha massacre.

Still, him rejecting a good amount of his fan club's advances was quite commonplace. She didn't truly remember why she lingered around that one time. Naruto wasn't even around, and she had no interest whatsoever in the cold Uchiha; she just happened to be in the area, and didn't have the sense to leave as she was lost in thought at the moment. And then she saw the shallow girls tossing their accessories and jewelry to the ground, and some went as far as to toss them in a nearby garbage bin. But not before they got into histrionics and bickering with one another first, trying to pin the blame on one another before taking it out on the unoffending trinkets.

Her curiosity got the better of her, and Hinata picked the discarded items up. Although Hinata wasn't really into such frivolous things like jewelry or fancy expensive clothes, as wealthy as she might have been, the shy girl had to admit that the pieces were quite beautiful and well made. Some of them had even been broken by their irate owners for apparently failing in their purpose.

She gathered them all and put them in a cloth for safekeeping. She had heard of the peddler in passing, since word of mouth spread around from the first kunoichi in training that purchased something from him several weeks back. Apparently, they were all handmade by the peddler himself. She resolved to find the maker and give them back.

In retrospect, she didn't know why she decided to find the boy and give him back his rejected merchandise. But before she could let any more doubts torment her mind, she was already on her way to where the peddler was said to do business frequently. Maybe it had to do with the fact that they were rejected at all…

She had not expected Naruto to be there. In all honesty, she had not expected Naruto to be there.

But there he was anyways; talking to the person she was looking for to return his spurned merchandise. She hid out of sight before either boy could catch a glimpse of her. That night she would scorn herself for her cowardice in the presence of the blond-haired genin as she usually did. She had never possessed the courage necessary to even greet the boy who wanted to be Hokage, and here she was being presented with yet another opportunity that she didn't have the sense to take advantage of.

So Hinata just waited, and listened, hoping for whatever they were talking about to end soon so she could approach the person who made the discarded items without becoming nervous and clamming up in Naruto's presence, and just hand over the bundle in her arms and be on her way. Sadly, that meant wasting another opportunity to talk to Naruto.

However, the blond didn't leave for a while. He and the taller boy talked for a while. From some of his outbursts and the tone of the peddler, they were talking about something serious, and Naruto wasn't happy about it. Surprisingly, it didn't end in an argument, but it did end with the short genin making a purchase from the peddler and receiving some unusual advice as well.

Then Naruto left and Hinata made her move. But then more people started approaching the peddler, and she felt much too self conscious to go to him at the moment. It was a couple of minutes before she finally could attempt to do what she wanted to do, but by then the boy had started packing up to leave. She hesitantly moved towards his position when he turned his attention towards Hinata.

If she had frozen where she stood the moment the strange boy noticed her, then her heart all but stopped when the peddler asked if she was Naruto's friend. What could she answer to that? She knew she couldn't call herself his friend, no matter how much she wanted him to notice her. Not that she found that surprising, as she considered herself too pathetic to be noticed by him at the moment.

It didn't get much better afterwards. Sure, she did hand over his discarded products and he was grateful to her for that simple act of kindness. He even asked her if there was anything he could do for her. But when he asked Hinata if she had wanted to talk with Naruto, she panicked.

She tried to apologize to the peddler for wasting his time, but it came unintelligibly between her teeth. As unbelievable as it might sound, that last question, valid as it might have been, made her feel transparent and exposed were she stood. It wasn't a feeling she liked; not at all.

If anything, she counted her lucky stars that no one from the Hyuuga bore witness to her bumbling, otherwise it would have been brought to her attention by her Father already, followed by some harsh words directed at her inability to uphold her family's image in front of others outside the compound or something like that.

By the time Hinata came out of her reverie, she was close to the appointed meeting site Kurenai-sensei told her genins to meet her at that morning. She took notice of the weather at last.

It was a nice day, sunny and with few clouds in the sky. She wished she could take that as an omen for a bright future, but Hinata knew better.

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_**In the Village Hidden in the Sand…**_

Wind Country was allied to Fire Country. At the very least, their respective Hidden Villages were allied. Regardless of their allegiance, the Sand and Leaf ninjas didn't always see eye to eye.

They had very different ways of doing things. The Leaf forces were known to be merciful when they could afford to, while the Sand brought to mind the stereotype of the hardened ninja killer, the very type that struck terror into the hearts of everyone around them, regardless if they were civilians or enemy shinobi.

Their hostility could be explained by several things. The Sand Village had fallen on hard times, their ninja forces weren't numerous enough that they could afford not to send lower level nins in extremely dangerous missions, and their leader, the Kazekage, was a certified jerk.

Regardless of their situation or demeanor, the Hidden Sand shinobi were still very good at what they did, which is one of the reasons why their village was among the five top Hidden Villages in the Elemental Countries. Still, that doesn't mean that the Sand ninjas wouldn't get stuck with menial tasks like gate-keeping duty, or the slightly more interesting patrol detail.

Why was it slightly more interesting than gate-keeping? You'd be amazed by some of the things you will find in the desert at night at times. And you never know when some poor, unfortunate soul might be found wandering around, lost in the dunes for whatever reasons.

A team on patrol got lucky in that regard a couple of weeks back, having run into a strange girl.

Poor thing was all but dehydrated, too. Wearing dark-colored clothing is not a good choice for traveling through the desert, even if you only move at night.

She was still alive, so instead of leaving her to the vultures, they brought her to the Village, for questioning, of course. But before that, they had to make sure their new guest was in prime health.

Some time later, one Temari was stuck with babysitting duty once more. _'At least it's better than getting stuck with that idiot Kankuro all day, or with…him.'_ That might be putting it mildly; it has been a long time since Temari had partaken in any 'girly' activities, and her latest assignment gave her a rare opportunity. And Temari was going to enjoy for as long as she could.

After all, it wasn't everyday she could go shopping for clothes.

"Temari-san! Check this kimono out! It would look so pretty on you," spoke the Sand kunoichi's current charge. She was a strange girl. Nice, but strange, nonetheless. Normally, others in her situation wouldn't be as calm as she acted. She could recall the few times she'd had to assist with panicky foreigners who got lost in the desert a couple of days, or survivors of a bandit attack on a merchant caravan. None had ever been as calm as this girl.

"Temari-san, is something the matter?" Temari was brought out of her reverie by the question.

"No, no, I'm fine, I just have… a lot on my mind," she replied. She went to try on the kimono the younger girl had picked for her. She could afford to, since she was aware of several undercover Sand Ninja all over the store. The Kazekage was an immensely paranoid person, but she'd be damned if she allowed that stiff that was supposed to be her father to ruin her much needed downtime.

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Author's note March 11, 2008: I made a couple of small changes here and there. Hopefully, they'll improve on the quality of the chapter more. In case you are wondering, no, Orion will not become Naruto's new best friend, no, he will not play matchmaker, and no, just because Naruto ate is no guarantee that he will pass the test. This story is about Naruto and Hinata, not about my characters. Just thought I'd get that point across.

Constructive Reviews are thoroughly appreciated and accepted. They help me fix the story if I ever screw up on something. Flames will be flushed down the White Charlie. You have been warned. This is my story, enjoy!

Special thanks to XyoushaX and Paintball-Gamer for the beta work they did, and to my partner in crime, Arganaut.


	4. So Much for Breakfast

Disclaimer: I do not own anything that isn't mine. Naruto and all related characters aren't mine, as well as whatever other concepts I might borrow. This story is mine, as well as whatever original situations and characters contained therein unless otherwise specified. And no, I don't like disclaimers.

Author's note: There is a bit of a fight in later this chapter. When you, the reader, gets to it, remember one simple detail: At this point in the timeline, Naruto's hand to hand skills were pretty much garbage. And from Kiba's comments in the Chuunin Preliminaries, it could be inferred that Naruto got beaten in fights during his time in the Ninja Academy by **everyone, **or at least by a lot of people**. **There is no proof of co-ed sparring, so I won't go there. If he had been a good fighter, I doubt his fellow graduates would have underestimated or badmouth him as much as they did, because then he'd have something going for him at least.

"Dialogue"

'_thoughts'_

'_**Inner Sakura'**_

Chapter 3

Uchiha Sasuke was not amused. The fact notwithstanding that he hadn't been amused by anything in a very long time, he couldn't be happy at all with his situation at the moment.

Some of it might have to do with the girl beside him, since she wouldn't leave him alone for a few minutes. Yes, she most definitely is contributing to his progressively worsening mood. He just couldn't fathom why he had gotten assigned with the two most annoying and useless people in his class.

At that moment, he rather wished he had been assigned to Team 8. Sure, Kiba was just as loud as that usuratonkachi Naruto, but at least he was a decent fighter and might provide some semblance of a challenge when sparring, for a while anyways. Shino…was so reserved he knew next to nothing of him. But he'd trade the pink haired fan girl he was saddled with for the Aburame any day. At least he was quiet.

The annoying girl, Sakura, seemed to have given up for the moment in trying to strike conversation over the most trivial things, and quieted down. Thank goodness. He could finally think of more productive things. But it seemed that all that came to mind were his most recent aggravations. Damnation.

He just didn't know what to think about his new 'teacher'. It was certainly embarrassing to watch him get pelted with an eraser of all things, and after his declaration that a jounin wouldn't fall for such a stupid trick, too. So much for being a supposedly elite ninja; apparently, not only were his so-called teammates useless, but he was assigned to an incompetent instructor as well! He really hoped against hope that his situation wasn't as bad as it seemed, and that his new instructor might actually have something, _anything_ worth learning. He still hadn't seen him in action, so he might not be completely worthless.

'_Right, and… that man… will just die by falling on a spork without me lifting a single finger,'_ he thought rather sarcastically. Sasuke immediately changed the direction of his brooding before he got to thinking about the person he hated the most in the world. So he curbed his train of thought to the person who aggravated him the most in the world.

How, oh how did the blond loser manage to get a headband? He knew the idiot had failed graduation again. He shouldn't have been there for team assignments, and by extension, shouldn't have been assigned to any genin cell, much less the one he was part of. It just shouldn't have happened! But he was a genin anyhow, despite how impossible it should have been, and a thorn in his side once more.

As embarrassed as he might have been at his new sensei's apparent ineptitude, he was downright ashamed that a person that was supposed to be nothing but hot air caught him by surprise. And how did he make solid clones?!

There were several things he couldn't puzzle out from that…encounter. Like why Naruto used Henge to change into a perfect replica of himself. Or why he instigated the whole skirmish in the first place.

Maybe it had something to do with why Sakura was acting a bit stranger than usual, if not the cause. In any case, when he had cornered the dead last, he didn't get anything important out of him, although he was amused that all of his clones and his original self had gotten the sudden urge to… relieve themselves, all at the same time. He was definitely in a better mood after watching Naruto making a fool out of himself again, even if it was for a short while.

Earlier, when he met Sakura outside before facing Naruto again, he asked her about their blond idiot of a teammate. She was slightly confused at first, but then started berating the blond with a smile on her face, probably from the fact that he was even talking to her at all.

Then she went out of her way to insult Naruto a bit with things related to him being an orphan and alone and how they were responsible for how he turned out.

Needless to say, she had hit a very sensitive spot, and even if he didn't particularly like anything about Naruto, he wasn't about to let this ignorant fool shoot off her mouth about things she didn't understand anything about. "You're annoying" he had told her after some hard words, with as much disgust as he could muster in his voice. And speaking of the pink-haired headache…

"Where is that baka Naruto?" Haruno Sakura complained, seeing as any attempt at conversing with the object of her affections was an exercise in futility…for now. They were at the appointed meeting place, the training site where they were supposed to perform Kakashi's survival test. Neither their sensei nor the blond annoyance that was supposed to be her other teammate had arrived yet. But if it meant more time alone with her Sasuke-kun…

"Ohayo, Sakura-chan!"

'_**Damn it, does that idiot have to keep ruining everything?! SHANAAAROOO!!!'**_

Why did she resolve to be nicer to him again? Maybe she was feeling down after Sasuke shot her down yesterday. Quite harshly, too. She never expected her crush, Uchiha Sasuke of all people, to chew her out in Naruto's defense.

Her resolve to treat him nicer evaporated when they had to wait three hours for their sensei to arrive in the classroom. Even if her 'Inner Self' appreciated the prank he pulled on their tardy sensei the day before, she was still annoyed by his advances.

Naruto was only a few minutes late, but Kakashi had yet to appear. So they waited.

And waited.

And waited some more…

_**Over two hours later…**_

Kakashi finally made his appearance. "Good morning, students."

Naruto and Sakura voiced their displeasure at the tardiness of their aloof teacher.

"YOU'RE LATE!!!"

It is one thing to be grounded by your parents for staying out too late. It is another thing entirely when you get confined to your hospital room 'for examination', all because you nearly missed curfew. What a lame excuse, thought Orion.

The fact that the hospital was run by ninjas for the most part, made any escape from the institution of healing quite difficult for the average patient.

Then again, one patient had to be grateful for being stuck in the hospital. He had a lot to think about. For one thing, his 'condition' was acting up like it hadn't in years. That made him an object of curiosity among many of the hospital personnel. After all, how many cases had anyone ever witnessed of someone whose energy flow had unstable portions in parts of their bodies? Or that those portions could cause the person physical damage when they occasionally fluctuated out of control?

The fact that a person shouldn't be harmed by their own chakra without it being manifested by an attack technique of some sort didn't help. At least with attack spells it could be understandable, as a careless caster ran the risk of having their techniques backfire, causing gross bodily harm and, in extreme cases, death.

Even with the regulator seals Orion crafted in place, his body still hadn't recovered completely. He was more worried about when he would be healthy enough to travel and go find his friends. But the way things are going, he'd have to wait until they found him instead. All in all, that might be the right choice. But it didn't make waiting any less tedious, especially with all the poking and prodding they did on him during his rather frequent examinations. _'Yeah, right, examinations…I'm starting to feel more like a guinea pig than a patient…'_ Orion thought a bit bitterly.

He also thought about some of the people he'd met. Some of the guards who found him actually came by to see how he was. It was always nice for someone to wish for you to recover your health, even when they were pretty much total strangers. Then, the old Hokage also came to mind. The loud blond boy and the dark, shy girl soon occupied his thoughts, especially the latter person. Even if he had met the girl, Hinata, first, rather than the boy, he had to admit that she and Naruto contrasted interestingly with their demeanors and personalities.

Speaking of Naruto, Orion wondered how the test was going.

Things were not going the way he wanted, no sir. Getting sent flying through the air by a super powerful butt poke, a supposed combat technique from a man who ignored you to read a porn novel was just… wrong.

Even with breakfast in his belly, Naruto wasn't making any progress at all. He was just too pissed at the man, who refused to take any of them seriously. In retrospect, the young demon vessel shouldn't have let his sensei rile him up.

But waiting nearly three hours for his teacher to show up did away with whatever self-control the hot-headed youth might have. And now, his teammates, who were hiding in the trees, had just gotten a very good showing of their sensei totally humiliating Naruto without even trying.

As nice as it was to watch Naruto getting silenced by their sensei's prowess, Sasuke and Sakura knew that they were going to have a difficult time if they wanted to pass. At least that is what Sakura thought. As always, Sasuke was confident that he would be able to pass this test and perhaps be rid of the two nuisances that were supposed to be his teammates.

Unfortunately, he only gave Kakashi marginally more trouble than Naruto did, even if said margin was quite wide. That Katon technique was unexpected to say the least, and his hand-to-hand skills were good for his age.

The ex-ANBU decided in the end to put the 'last Uchiha' out of his misery by burying him up to his neck in the dirt, much to the proud genin's indignant fury and utter humiliation.

And Sakura? She fell for a genjutsu, an illusionary technique that made her see a horribly mangled vision of Uchiha Sasuke pleading for her help. She fainted right afterwards. Then she fainted again when she saw Sasuke 'beheaded' on the ground. Very disappointing for a kunoichi.

The alarm clock rang out, signaling the end of the test. The score was: Kakashi 3, Genins 0. And none of them had been able to get a single bell. It was time for a lecture, Kakashi style.

"You guys should just quit as ninjas. None of you have what it takes!"

That didn't go well with the proud Uchiha, who took this insult to his abilities very seriously. His attack on the jounin was foiled once more, and Kakashi enjoyed a new brooding pillow to sit on.

Ignoring the protests of the pink haired girl, he went and pointed out everything they did wrong, starting with the true purpose of the test. At the start, Kakashi told his students that they were required to take a bell from his belt to pass. There were only two bells, so one of them would invariably fail. At least that is what they thought. In the end, they were all so focused on getting a bell and passing that they didn't properly analyze the situation.

They were just three fresh genin from the academy. No matter how good they might have been individually, there was no way any of them could be able to take on a jounin on their own yet. For the fledgling shinobi to even get one bell, they had to work together to achieve the mission parameters.

In order to pass, they had to be willing to put aside their own interests for the good of the team. And so far... they screwed up.

"Sakura, instead of helping Naruto, who was closer to you, you were only thinking of Sasuke, who was far away. Naruto!! You were too busy trying to show me up and just ran around all over the place without thinking things through!" If Sasuke was enjoying hearing his teammates receiving that harsh criticism, despite his current position, it wasn't known, as Kakashi targeted him last. "Sasuke, you just assumed everyone would get in your way, and tried to do everything yourself!"

Things were not looking up for the would-be genins. Fortunately, Kakashi was going to give them another chance. And Naruto, being the one tied to the post, was not to touch a single piece of food as punishment for the attempted theft of the bentos earlier.

Naruto couldn't believe his luck. He had been thoroughly humiliated during the whole test. First, he couldn't even land a single strike on the scarecrow. Then, the failed ambush with his clones after landing on the water from that… attack from his sensei, since Kakashi used the substitution technique with one of his clones. Then, he stupidly believed that he had merely used henge and that Kakashi had disguised himself as one of his clones. He and his duplicates had started to beat up on each other before he finally dispelled them.

He felt like a total idiot for not doing that before. Naruto _hated_ feeling like an idiot.

Adding insult to injury, he never even thought of checking for traps when he found a bell conveniently on the ground. To his credit, he did get a bad feeling just before he tried to snag the bell, but it came too late. Then he found himself being lectured by his new sensei about seeing "underneath the underneath", while hanging upside down from his foot, no less!

Back then, he had inwardly dismissed what Kakashi had said as nonsense. He did get down from the noose, only to discover that the trap he fell to was double layered. If that wasn't enough, he had the bright idea to steal the bentos the scarecrow left behind at the posts, even when he wasn't that hungry. He just wanted to get back at his sensei for making a fool out of him. Apparently, his desperation had driven off whatever common sense he might have had, since Kakashi caught him with no difficulty whatsoever and tied him to the post he was at currently.

When the scarecrow jounin started talking about the memorial stone, Naruto put his foot in his mouth once more for asking Kakashi to put his name in said stone when he became a great ninja. The same stone where the heroes who died in battle had their names engraved on.

He felt even more like a heel when the jounin mentioned his best friend's name being inscribed there as well. Also, as loathe as he might have been to admit it, the hobo had been right all along.

However, at this very moment, the unthinkable was happening; Sasuke was offering him his own food! "Wha-what are you doing?"

"I don't sense Kakashi-sensei anywhere, and you'll need your strength or you'll just get in the way." If that wasn't surprising on its own, Sakura followed Sasuke's lead and offered her bento as well.

Naruto had to decline, though. "Eh-heh, it's okay. I kinda forgot not to eat breakfast today, so I'm fine. You guys need it more than I do."

They looked at him like he had grown a second head. Well, Sakura did at least; Sasuke just raised an eyebrow in disbelief.

A few moments later, Kakashi came barreling through the clearing where the three posts and the memorial stone were located at, and the genin feared the worst.

A minute or so later after their strange scarecrow of a teacher had declared them officially Genin Cell Seven, Naruto was a bit miffed. It wasn't because he was pissed that his sensei had played them from the start. He took Kakashi's words of 'those who left their comrades to die being worse than scum' to heart. No, it was because his sensei decided to leave him tied up a bit longer in the pole while everyone else went away!!!

Then he tried to get Sakura to go out with him after she got shot down by Sasuke, only to be met by her fist…again.

Some time after he dismissed his genins, Hatake Kakashi got curious. Very curious, in fact. It wasn't because he was filled with disbelief that he actually passed a genin team. In fact, he was happy that he had a team that could be worth his time in the long run. It was about time, in his opinion.

Even though his team banded together against him only after he lectured them about the meaning of the test, he was certain that after some time together they would start getting along better and work as a team from Hidden Leaf Village should. That might prove challenging, especially when taking into account the very different personalities of his students. Considering the somewhat odd assortment he was given this time around, it was bound to take a lot of work.

First up, Uchiha Sasuke, the Top Rookie of this year's class, came to mind. He was the only Uchiha left that was still loyal to Leaf Village. His elder brother, Itachi, killed off everyone else, including his and Sasuke's parents. He was obsessed with avenging his clan and killing his brother. Very antisocial and sure of his skills to the point of viewing his fellow genin as being beneath him, at least, those from his own class, Sasuke might be the most resistant to any sort of incorporation into team dynamics of any type.

Second was Haruno Sakura, a kunoichi and contender for the spot of #1 Fan Girl in the Uchiha Sasuke Fan Club ™. She had the highest book smarts in the graduating class, but sadly, her practical skills were only so-so. She was obsessed with winning the last Uchiha's heart, and seemed to put more effort into looking pretty than in training. Hopefully, being in the same team as the object of her affections might break whatever daydreams she might have and she might then put an effort in being a kunoichi.

And third up was one Uzumaki Naruto. Now he was closer to the source of his curiosity. The worst student to graduate from the academy in many years, Naruto was supposed to have flunked out once more after he failed in his third attempt to pass when he couldn't produce a decent bunshin. Then the fiasco with the Forbidden Scroll occurred, and he came out of it with his life and the ability to perform the nigh-forbidden Kage Bunshin technique. That was certainly surprising on it's own, and was awarded his leaf headband for it. His dream was to become Hokage, but enough about that.

In all the times he had been asked to take on a team, no one had ever disregarded his 'order' of forgoing breakfast for the test. But he did. Kakashi wasn't naïve enough to believe that Naruto just forgot the warnings he gave the day before. The loud blond actually did what no one else had **on purpose**. And the famed Copycat Ninja had to admit that it was like an itch that just wouldn't stop bothering you until you put some ointment on it. Okay, maybe it wasn't quite that bad, but he was still curious.

Maybe he could talk to the boy's academy instructor for some more information on the enigma that was Naruto at a later date, or get some more info from Hokage-sama himself. Of course, maybe he should do the most obvious thing to satisfy his curiosity; go to the blond knucklehead himself.

And that is what the legendary Hatake Kakashi, Elite Jounin of the Hidden Leaf Village and former ANBU squad captain, master of a thousand jutsus and one of the most feared ninja in the world was doing, tailing his 'most interesting student' using minimal stealth. Considering the skill level of the blond, he would never be able to tell he was being followed, so the jounin was safe from any detection from his quarry.

And then Maito Gai appeared.

"AH, MY ETERNAL RIVAL KAKASHI!!"

Of course, said jounin couldn't help but curse his luck. He was one of the few who had the misfortune of attracting the attention of the eccentric Gai for this or that reason.

If a person were to meet Gai, they would at best be just a little weirded out. At worst, they would wish they had never met him. Picture a tall, muscular man, wearing a bright green spandex bodysuit that was thankfully loose on his frame, a standard issue chuunin flak vest, and orange colored leg warmers that matched with nothing but the orange leaf forehead protector he wore as a belt. Okay, so they didn't match with that either. To top off this unbelievable fashion faux pas, was an ugly bowl cut that did nothing to hide or distract from his incredibly thick eyebrows. If that wasn't enough, he was very loud and obnoxious most of the time and overly enthusiastic about his… passions. Many have wondered how could a man like him could survive as a ninja long enough to advance to the jounin rank. Kakashi was not one of those people. At least, he wasn't most of the time.

"I heard the joyous news that you finally passed a genin team and wanted to congratulate you…"

By this point, the legendary Copycat Ninja started trying to tune out the rambling of the boisterous jounin and self-appointed rival of his person. This couldn't have happened at a worse time! Gai was sure to spout some of his 'flames of youth' nonsense and might challenge him to another ridiculous competition like he did at times. At least that 'mini-me' he had for a protégé wasn't with him at the moment, or things might have gotten a lot worse. Suffice to say, he had the misfortune of witnessing one of their… moments, some time ago. He was still recovering from the mental wounds.

Normally, Kakashi would just ignore Gai, which could send the green spandex-clad jounin into a rant on how 'hip and cool his eternal rival is', most of the time without fail. Needless to say, he didn't feel like doing that right now.

"Gai, do you mind? I am in the middle of something here," he said with as much annoyance as he could muster against the other man's antics. The good news was that Naruto hadn't noticed the racket caused that the eccentric Taijutsu specialist caused. The bad news was that Naruto was no longer in sight. That could be taken in one of two ways for the new sensei.

It could be taken as a good thing, because he still had no idea how to approach Naruto about his actions before getting to the appointed meeting site, and also as a bad thing because he really had no idea were the blond loudmouth was going to go, if he wasn't heading to his apartment.

"Ah, so you're on a mission! Where are your adorable students? I didn't expect you to start missions with them so soon!"

Kakashi couldn't help but cringe at the adjective Gai chose to describe his genins. In fact, he secretly hoped that he wouldn't have to show his students to this man any time in the near future. "I haven't."

Before he could figure how to word whatever reason he could have used in that very unusual situation he was in, Gai set off again. Kakashi really didn't feel like dealing with this right now. In his defense, he could say that he was desperate and couldn't think of anything else to solve the small dilemma he was in.

Five hours later, Maito Gai woke up inside a dumpster in an alleyway. When asked about it, he said he had no idea how he got there.

Kakashi had decided to do his snooping at a later date. He might have been known for being chronically tardy, but he did know better than to push his luck with the Sandaime Hokage. And besides, some interesting theories might pop up in conversation during the gathering with the other jounin sensei later that afternoon about how Gai managed to end up unconscious in a dumpster. Even if he was found out, the embarrassment the eccentric ninja would suffer would be worth whatever odd challenges the Taijutsu master would come up with later.

Had Naruto known he was being followed by his sensei, he never found out, and Kakashi didn't confront him about his disregard for the no eating advice, at least not yet. The next day, he was totally stoked and ready for action, as today was his first day as a Ninja of the Leaf.

By the end of the week, he was thoroughly cursing D-Rank missions and the people who requested them.

It didn't help that Naruto's upbringing, or lack of one, left him unprepared for doing most of the simple chores that they had to do in their missions, so he messed up quite frequently. Of course, that might actually have to do with the fact that he bumbled a lot trying to outdo Sasuke and impress Sakura, or just trying to outdo Sasuke. Not that it helped at all except to humiliate him and suffer the wrath of Sakura whenever he tried to "confront" the Uchiha about his "contributions" to Naruto's failures, to which the pink-haired girl would step in to defend Sasuke's honor against her annoying blond teammate. That usually ended up with Naruto being pummeled for the smallest things. All the while, Kakashi would…err… supervise them, with that novel of his in hand whenever possible.

All in all, the boy who wanted to be Hokage was re-thinking whatever admiration he might have held for his pervert of a sensei. He was a ninja now, damn it, not some lazy villagers errand boy! Unfortunately, it would be a while before he would ever go on a mission higher than D-Ranked. So they trained, in which Naruto would receive the most lectures from the members of his cell when he messed up, and in which Sasuke would trounce him during spars, much to the boy's eternal dismay.

His team was done with missions for the day, so he went to his apartment for a bit to look for his new throwing knives and take them to a training ground he frequented. He still hadn't been taught the trick to the weapons by that 'Olie-oni' guy, but he had been kept busy with the stupid D-rank missions and hadn't so much as seen him since he had bought the knives. He couldn't see what was so special about them aside from the odd engravings they had. Whatever, they were still good for target practice. So he took the bandolier to a secluded spot with plenty of target dummies that he frequented. He never noticed he had company.

Hinata had gone to the training ground Naruto frequented after she was done with her team's last mission for the day. She wanted some time to herself before she returned to the clan compound. This was one of her favorite spots to think, and she would practice her accuracy with her Kunai and Shuriken from time to time.

She hadn't thought about looking for Naruto today. She hadn't had much of a chance to do so since they became genin. Life, however, has been known for throwing things your way when you least expect it. Like always, she hid behind a tree when she found Naruto practicing in the range. Like always, she wished she was strong enough to speak with him.

Unlike always, there was someone behind her while she was behind the tree.

"You know, if you want to talk to him, you actually have to, you know, _talk to him." _

She quickly turned back to look at the source of the voice. There, wearing his ever present dark clothes, hefting that huge backpack of his and leaning on his black cane, was Orion. He had an unreadable expression on his features, at least from what could be seen through his bangs.

By the time Naruto noticed anyone behind him, Hinata was long gone. "Hey, it's you! What are you doing here?" the blond asked.

"Huh? Just walking around the village a bit. Looking around and stuff. This place is a lot bigger than I thought."

To Naruto, Orion had seemed distracted at first and was focusing on a spot in the distance before Naruto called out to him. He closed the distance somewhat and took his huge pack down to the ground before sitting down.

"How the heck do you lift around that thing around? It's fricken heavy, isn't it?" Naruto asked. Orion did some light stretching of his torso before replying to Naruto's inquiry.

"I'm used to it. Besides, I might have to get something bigger so I can carry more merchandise," the peddler said as if it was the most natural thing in the world. Naruto didn't seem to think so, apparently.

"WHA-AT?!?! Bu-but that thing is HUGE!!! And you want to get a bigger one, are you crazy?!" he yelled, pointing at the long haired boy with a shaking hand and a bugged out expression of total surprise and disbelieve, all directed at the taller boy.

Orion said nothing; he got up from where he was sitting took the backpack with one hand and walked towards Naruto, dragging the load along the ground. What he did next was the most unexpected thing the blond had ever witnessed that day.

"Put it on," and with that, he left it in front of Naruto, who was quite bewildered at the moment.

He looked to the pack's owner, the pack itself, and back several times. While Orion was about as tall as the jerk Sasuke, the pack he used to stash his supplies and merchandise was easily big enough to fit Konohamaru comfortably inside, at least, that was what the orange clad genin thought.

"No way… you're kidding me, right? THERE'S NO WAY I CAN LIFT THAT HUGE THING!! YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!!!" Orion just cocked his head to one side, while Naruto wondered if the guy in front of him was touched in the head.

"Aren't you a ninja?" he asked.

By now, Naruto was getting very confused. What was up with this guy? "Yeah, so what if I am? You knew that already, or did ya forget?!" he said, crossing his arms and regaining what little composure the blond boy could. Really, what was up with this guy?

"It's not like I'm asking you to be my pack mule; I want to see if you are strong enough to lift it. Ninjas are supposed to be stronger than ordinary people, after all." Naruto's inability to back down from a challenge where he could (sort of) prove himself as a shinobi was working in Orion's favor.

Naruto was glaring at the innocent Backpack. He was gritting his teeth and uttering a low growl. "You want to see how strong I am? FINE!!!" And so the genin faced up against his latest adversary…

Had Hinata stayed, she would have seen another example of the determination that attracted her to Naruto. Well, it was just lifting a heavy backpack, but it was a heavy backpack the self appointed Next Hokage was going to heft in his back no matter what it took. He was going to show Orion he was strong! And Hinata too, except Naruto wouldn't have noticed.

A few moments later, she would have witnessed him tripping on his feet and being crushed under the weight of the backpack. At least he managed to take three steps with it properly strapped to his back. Orion decided to take his burdens off of the smaller boy's shoulders.

"Aaah, here, let me help you up."

The Sandaime Hokage was taking a short break from signing paperwork in his office at the moment. He decided to do his regular check on Naruto to make sure he was alright. Using his viewing globe, he could see the happenings of the entire village from his seat at the office. Considering how busy he was, it was the only way he could keep track of Naruto a lot of the time.

Thankfully, he had yet to commit another prank ever since becoming a genin. So things were quiet, except when it came to mission assignments. Oh, Naruto was completely disappointed that he wouldn't be getting any serious missions just yet. And he wouldn't either for a very long time (but the young demon vessel didn't know that yet...).

Then, he saw the situation Naruto was in. He shook his head slightly at the scene playing out at the moment. "Naruto, what did you get into now?" Whatever ponderings he might have had at the moment were interrupted by a knock on his office doors. He dispelled the jutsu he was using to activate his crystal ball before allowing whoever was knocking to enter. It wouldn't do to allow just anyone to see his viewing globe in action.

Once he dismissed the messenger, he opened the scroll to read the message. _"From Hidden Sand Village, and from the Kazekage as well…what could this be about…?"_

"Hey, what are you doing?! Put me down!! Are you listening?! Hey!!"

When Orion said he would help Naruto up, he wasn't expecting this. Helping someone up when they fall usually means getting them back on their feet and their faces off the ground had they been in contact with it, as well as the rest of their body. Instead, Orion hefted the backpack up from the top strap along with the necks of both Naruto's orange and blue jacket and the shirt he wore, even though it couldn't be seen, with one hand. And the arm that hand was attached to was raised clear over the larger boy's head.

The result? Naruto was dangling off the ground like a puppy being picked up from the loose skin around his neck. Several inches off the ground. It didn't really help that Orion decided to lower and raise Naruto and the back a couple of times consecutively, never letting Naruto's sandaled feet touch the forest loam.

"You might be right, Naruto-san. Getting a bigger pack is probably going to be a problem. Maybe I should get a cart. What do you think?"

"OKAY, FINE, JUST PUT ME DOWN ALREADY!!!"

"Are you sure you want that, Naruto-san?" Orion asked, in a tone of voice one might use for discussing something completely normal, which of course, was nothing in this situation at all. Naruto wasted no time to reply with the same loud annoying voice that is his trademark in the minds of many in the village, none of whom particularly like him.

"OF COURSE I'M SURE, NOW LET ME GO!!!" If he didn't touch the ground in the next ten seconds, Naruto was contemplating trying to send a kick back towards the guy who put him in this position and hopefully hit a _very_ sensitive spot.

The larger boy just shook his head slightly, not that Naruto noticed. "Actually, if I just let go, you probably wouldn't be able to balance properly, which means you'd either fall on the pack face up, or you could get squashed again, eating dirt. So… do you want me to do it right, or do you want to get squashed?"

His nonchalance would have probably sent Naruto on another tirade. That is, if the blond in question hadn't just started to panic in fear of getting crushed under the huge back pack all over again. 

"The right way, THE RIGHT WAY!!!"

"Sure thing, Naruto-san," and with that, the shorter boy's feet finally returned to the ground. Orion helped relieve him of his burden and took his pack again like he didn't just do something out of the ordinary.

Unfortunately, Naruto's wasn't about to forget what just happened. "You… YOU…WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?!"

Orion didn't really have a drastic change in expression, unless you counted the slight quirk of his lips in amusement as one. He was thankful he was in a rather good mood. Otherwise, his patience wouldn't probably be up to the task of dealing with an easily excitable and irritable person like the boy in front of him. He shrugged. "I guess I was curious about how much you weighed."

Naruto did not take that that explanation very well. "WHAT?! You did that to see how much I weighed?! You could have just asked me, you hobo!!"

Silence. A raised eyebrow. "Aren't you more curious about how I lifted you and my pack clear off the ground when the combined weight is probably heavier than me?" he asked the blond. "_And don't you have any better insults than to call me than hobo?"_ he asked mentally, getting a bit annoyed at Naruto's 'pet name' for him.

A delayed reaction, consisting of a frozen angry expression, a sudden shift to a wide-eyed, slack-jawed one, followed by a loud "SAY WHAT?!" and Uzumaki Naruto fell on his butt as soon as realization finally set in. Then he started scrutinizing the huge pack and the owner all over again. Repeatedly.

"Are you sure you are on the right career path, Naruto-san?" A somewhat intelligent and sensible question that Orion probably knew had a very high chance to set Naruto off into a rant. Sadly, Naruto didn't really understand the term 'career path', so instead his face took on a mildly confused, squinty-eyed expression and asked what the heck that meant.

_Is this guy for real?_ Orion thought. _And he wants to be the village leader? _"You want me to explain what career path means? Well, it's like this…" Orion was fairly certain that Naruto would blow after his explanation. Where did he leave his aspirin?

True enough, after Orion's explanation of career paths was a trademark rant wherein Naruto would scold his "captive audience" about the error of their ways and why he would be Hokage that seemingly went on and on forever.

Well, it was actually about five or six minutes, but you get the point.

"…and then I'm going to… Hey are you listening?!" Naruto asked his current companion.

"…….zzzZZZZzzzz…"

Said companion had apparently fallen asleep after the first three minutes of the blond boy's 'I'm going to be Hokage and that's that' speech. That of course, probably saved him from that impending headache Naruto's loud voice might have caused him (he had left his aspirin behind).

Of course, Naruto wouldn't stand for being ignored like this. Then again, he couldn't stand being ignored, period. It happened quite often however, which only irritated him every time. So he did what he considered to be the right thing to do and bonk the sleeping Orion in the head like Sakura had done to him so many times in the past. That would teach him not ignore him!

He walked up to the long haired boy. He clenched his fist. He cocked his right arm in preparation for the strike. He aimed for his opponent's cranium, and attacked!

_WHACK!!!_ "OW-OOF!!!...uugh…"

That… was Naruto's response as he was struck in the head by a black cane. Followed that strike, came a sweeping maneuver with the cane that made the genin eat dirt a second time, with a side dish of grass and dust for dessert for good measure. Before Naruto had the chance to get back up, the same cane kept him in a face down position, pressed on the back of his skull by one very awake Orion.

Whatever retort Naruto might have delivered was muffled down by his unfortunate mulch eating maneuver.

"What did you say? I think I'd better get you off the ground again, Naruto-san." So Orion did.

This time, Naruto was in no mood to banter or talk. His temper was flaring full force now. He'd had enough of this jerk. TIME TO KICK BUTT!!!

What followed afterwards, Naruto would always remember with some degree of embarrassment. Every punch he threw was blocked or swatted aside with the cane. Every kick met with the same fate. Desperate to score a hit, Naruto swung his fist – Orion dodged, and easily.

"HEY!!! QUIT" – punch – "SCREWING AROUND" – kick – "SO I CAN HIT'CHA," – left hook –

"JERK!!!" he yelled during his latest attempts in landing a blow, his frustration rising all the while.

"But if I do that," – block – "you could actually hit me!" – block – "Why would I want to let you hit me," – dodge – "Naruto-san?" There was the tiniest hint of amusement in Orion's voice.

"SHUT UP!!!" Naruto's mood was getting steadily worse as the "fight" dragged on. He decided to go aerial in the end. Since attacks on the ground weren't working, a good flying kick on the head would knock him down! And then he'd make the hobo pay!

He backed away from his opponent. Then, Naruto went on a running start, giving a battle cry all the while, and launched to the air. Victory was going to be his at last – he was sure!

The attack was sidestepped with ease. Before Naruto even made it one foot past his target, Orion swung his cane upwards, right at the Achilles tendon of the leg used for the kick. Unable to stop himself, the blond boy was sent on a backwards spin. When he fell, his anger dissipated almost instantly. Then, shock and confusion.

"You know, Naruto-san, you really aren't putting much of a convincing argument of being qualified to be shinobi, especially with sloppy attacks like those," said Orion to the blond boy's prone form. He met with no resistance when he helped the genin to his feet once more.

Naruto was in a daze for a few moments. He didn't land a hit. He didn't land ONE SINGLE HIT! Fighting Sasuke, he could always connect from time to time. Sometimes, they were just glancing blows; most of the time his attacks were blocked or dodged by the more skilled Uchiha.

But this time… Not even a glancing blow. For some reason, it hurt his pride worse than when Kakashi-sensei had fought circles around him during that bell test a week back.

"DAMN IT!!" Naruto's anger was directed at himself this time. He just couldn't understand! He was the one supposed to kick butt here, not some damn… damn… HOBO!! Before he knew, he was on his knees, punching at the unoffending grass, muttering curses all the while.

"Hey, Naruto-san, you okay?"

The taller boy's words brought the frustrated genin out of his rampage on the defenseless forest loam. His anger and frustration were large, but he couldn't bring himself to strike at his "adversary" again, despite that his attention was focused on Orion once more.

"NO! I'm NOT okay, you damned hobo!" Naruto screamed at Orion, mistaking the other boy's concern for pity. "Just back off, alright?! Leave me alone!"

But Orion did not leave Naruto alone. Instead, he sat on the ground in front of the angry ninja's location, unconcerned by the blond's wrath. "Attacking me was a very stupid thing to do." The scolding tone in which he spoke was subtle, but not even Naruto could miss it.

"So what?! If you hadn't ignored me I wouldn't have attacked you, you jerk!" The miffed genin said, almost growled, in response.

Orion just shook his head. "No, you didn't have to attack me even if I was ignoring you. If you go attacking anyone who doesn't pay attention to you, people are either going to keep ignoring you, or avoid you altogether. Then nobody is going to listen to anything you say at all. You sure you want that, Naruto-san?"

No, of course Naruto didn't want that, but he was angry with this guy at the moment, so he isn't going to say so. "Grrrrr…Sh-shut up, just shut up! If you aren't leaving, then I will!" He didn't even make it off the ground where he was kneeling, as he had gotten busy discovering why the artisan's cane had such an unusual shape to it.

Naruto, the boy who went up against a traitorous chuunin without hesitation, who, in just a few hours one night, learned a forbidden technique that would have harmed any ordinary genin, was frozen on the spot when he found himself with the edge of an unconcealed blade aimed at his neck.

"If I had been an enemy, Naruto-san, I might have done a lot worse than just give you a love tap in the head." And with that, Orion stood up once more, sheathing his blade and transforming it into a cane once more. "Attacking an opponent without an idea of what they are capable of is likely to make you end up dead in the wrong situations." And with that, he walked away from the flabbergasted boy, heading in the direction of one of the targets Naruto had been using earlier.

Whether or not he was aware of Orion moving away, Naruto didn't show. He had put a hand to where the concealed blade touched the skin of his neck. It was only when he saw a small amount of blood in his hand that it finally sunk in.

"YOU MEAN YOU HAD A SWORD THE WHOLE TIME!?"

"Hmm, if you are this slow to process information, maybe you really are in the wrong career path." Orion commented without looking back at his former customer. He had gone to one of the targets that Naruto had used the knives he had purchased from him a while back and plucked one of them out of the straw dummy. He'd have to ask the blond to tell him where he purchased the oil for his weapons. Upon inspecting the one currently in his hands, it didn't feel like very high quality stuff at all, but that might just be a bit of maker's pride talking.

"Oh, SHUT UP! HOW WAS I SUPPOSED TO KNOW YOU HAD A FREAKING SWORD!?" Naruto shouted out to the most recent candidate for the 'People I Got to Kick the Crap Out Of' list.

The taller boy finally turned to face the irate genin again still with the ornate throwing weapon in his hand. "…You know you are just making my point for me, don't you, Naruto-san." Orion said, resisting the urge to smirk when the other boy had gotten back to mumbling on the spot quite angrily. "Speaking of 'not knowing what you're dealing with is capable of'… Have you figured out the trick to the knives yet?"

"No, I haven't figured out the stupid trick you are talking about!" Naruto retorted angrily from where he was sitting. He wondered for a moment if the peddler had been pulling his leg all along. If he had, then he would really go on his List.

Then, Orion couldn't keep a grin from his face as he closed the distance towards the customer he just couldn't keep from angering this day. Naruto wondered if he should be scared or annoyed by that grin. When Orion got done, the answer would be neither one.

"Okay, Naruto-san. Watch this." And with a flourish, he extended the hand with the knife dramatically, surprising Naruto a bit, since he wasn't expecting such a display. Orion moved the throwing weapon so that the engravings on the metal could be seen by his audience.

Naruto did a double take when the engravings started _glowing._ "Wha…What are you doing!?"

Orion did not answer Naruto's question. Instead, he took aim to one of the straw dummies. He threw the weapon as hard as he could. The knife cut through the air with ease, heading straight for the target.

Naruto had tried to figure out what the supposed trick was with the knives several times in the past week. He never got far at all, but then again, all he did was trying different (if sloppy) methods and positions for throwing the knives. None of those had given any results, not that he even knew what results he was supposed to get. At most, their very light weight helped them travel a bit faster than his kunai.

Had Naruto actually thought of channeling his chakra on them before, then he wouldn't have been surprised when part of the straw dummy seemingly _burst_ as soon as the knife made contact with the target. But he hadn't thought of channeling his energies into the knives before, and now, his surprise was all too apparent to anyone who saw his expression.

"WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?!" The blond yelled. Orion found it surprising that he hadn't fallen on his rear again. Instead, Naruto's face had an expression of earnest amazement and wonder, just like that of a very young child, which came after an expression of complete shock, of course. Moments like this made his job a lot more enjoyable.

"The engravings aren't just for decoration; they are runes, or what you people call seals around these parts," explained the maker of the odd weapons.

"Seals? Why would you put seals in these knives?" Naruto asked.

"Well… it's because putting seals allows weapons to do some very cool things. Like that shock wave thing the one I threw just did. Speaking of which…" and with that, Orion proceeded to look around the ground in search of something.

"Shock…wave? You mean that explosion thing?" asked Naruto. "How did you make it do that?"

"Well, making the grid itself was a bit fussy. I had to combine what I could of trap runes to get the "release upon impact" effect that I needed of them, and I had to forge them in this leaf shape to have more space to work with and make an appropriate rune sequence to… I lost you completely there, didn't I, Naruto-san?" Indeed, when Orion glanced after finally acquiring what he was looking for, Naruto's head was tilted to the left, with an eyebrow raised, and his mouth slightly open, a common expression of confusion.

"Huh? Uh…" Naruto shook his head a bit in order to clear the slight haze that seems to settle in some people when listening to something that goes way over their heads.

Orion looked at the knife he just picked up from the ground and started back towards Naruto. "Sorry about that, I guess I started getting technical for a bit. Come over here for a bit." He motioned with his right hand. The blond genin complied, not knowing what else the peddler would pull out of his sleeves. Heck, he kind of wanted to see what else he would pull off!

As soon as he got to where Orion was, the peddler started once more. "See the runes? The gist of it is that I made them so that they would store the energy you focus on them, and release it as soon as they hit something. However, because of the Shockwave, the knives won't stay were they hit. See? This is the same one I just threw."

"What?! But I thought it had exploded!" Naruto exclaimed, not understanding it at all. Orion just shook his head at the outburst, although not out of annoyance. If anything, he'd rather find the smaller boy's mood swings kind of amusing.

"Making an exploding knife like that would be too dangerous. You could get injured or killed by the shrapnel of the metal. Not good for the buyer or for sales." The long haired boy then handed the weapon back to its owner. "Any other questions, Naruto-san?" he asked.

"Yeah: these knives are so COOL!! Why the heck did you say they are for practice only?" Naruto was already thinking of ways to use those knives the next time he had practice with his team. Oh, yes, that would show Sasuke...

"Well, that's sort of because I haven't completely worked on a recall function yet… I'd rather not sell these knives for combat purposes without it." After a pause, Orion noticed that he'd gotten Naruto completely lost once more. "Never mind that Naruto-san, I'll just explain it to you later. Speaking of later…" the long haired boy took out a pocket watch and opened it to look at the time, not giving Naruto a chance to process his words. "Never mind, I still have some time left before my curfew. Say… how did your test with Kakashi go? I'd like to hear about it."

The grin that appeared on Naruto's face threatened to split his face. The happy expression looked a lot better than the cranky one, Orion thought. Unfortunately, it only lasted until Orion called him on his attempts at embellishment and exaggeration and actually got Naruto to tell the events as they happened, much to the genin's embarrassment.

Orion had decided to sit on the ground again to listen to the blond's story, and he was rather amazed that Naruto didn't get owned worse. Then again…

"He gave you a kancho… I can't believe you got ass-poked by that guy…"

That was REALLY embarrassing.

"Kancho? You mean the Sennen Goroshi?" Naruto asked. Just thinking about how his sensei got him with that technique made his eye twitch, like it was right now.

"Trust me, Naruto-san, that was no combat technique; Hatake-san really wasn't taking you seriously." Getting poked in there hard enough to be sent flying… must have been one powerful butt-poke, but really, the poke probably wasn't the reason he went flying Must have been some application of energy or something through the fingertips. What was Hatake really capable of when he got serious?

"What do you mean it wasn't a real technique? It really hurt!" Naruto protested against his current companion, his eyes wide in shock at the statement, not believing it wasn't a technique, even if it was such an embarrassing one.

"Naruto-san, just because you slap a fancy name on a move doesn't make it a technique. If he had used the…maneuver… to attach an explosive device in your rear end, it would be a somewhat different story." Of course, Naruto flinched at that one immediately. But there was a nastier one on the way. "Then again, if he had jabbed a kunai in there… You'd have a good hospital stay ahead of you." Even he had to shudder at that one.

Naruto was all but looking nauseated when the image processed in his mind. "Stop saying those weird things, you're freaking me out!"

"It could have been even worse, Naruto-san. A lot worse," said Orion, using a rather matter-of-factly tone that the blond didn't quite appreciate.

"What could be worse than…-gulp- getting an explosive tag, or-or a kunai in…in…there?!" spoke the bewildered Naruto. In response, Orion looked thoughtful. This started to worry Naruto.

"Well, Naruto-san, there's always an old fashioned decapitation maneuver. One moment, you are just looking around, and the next thing you know", Orion did a quick motion with his fingers across his own throat at this, "you are looking right at your feet, without looking down." By now, Naruto was looking pale and holding his neck with both hands. He was probably remembering the earlier incident with the cane sword. This reminded Orion of something. "Hey, Naruto-san, did I cut you earlier?"

Naruto was brought out of those awful images that were forming in his head as a result of the conversation by that last sentence, suddenly remembering the blood he had in his hand earlier. He went and pulled down the neck of his orange jacket, and indeed, there was a small blood stain in his neck from when he got acquainted with the business side of the hidden sword's blade. "Darn it, I had completely forgotten about it! Did any of it get on my clothes? This stuff is so hard to get out!"

"Nah, the cut wasn't very deep at all; it seems it was just a tiny scratch, so you won't have to worry about getting the blood out of your jacket or anything. Let me see if I have something to help clean you up, eh, Naruto-san?" As he turned to his large backpack once more, he glanced at Naruto and noticed his puzzled, squinty eyed expression. "Is something the matter, Naruto-san?"

"Yeah, what's with that 'san' stuff? I'm just Naruto, why can't you call me Naruto?" the blond genin asked. When Orion turned his head slightly to look at Naruto, his long bangs parted enough to show his raised eyebrow.

"That's all? It's good business sense to know how to treat your clients, Naruto-san. Referring to them in a respectful manner is part of that. Ah, here we go." Finally, he took a handkerchief and a bottle of water out. He opened the bottle and poured some of its contents on the handkerchief, giving it to Naruto afterwards. "Here, use this to clean the blood from your neck." The artisan made a mental note of how his customer's eyes brightened a bit at the mention of the word 'respect', before his face changed into a squinty eyed expression that made him look like a kitten. The slight pout didn't help much.

"I don't get you. I just don't get you!" Naruto blurted out while he was cleaning his neck up.

"That's okay; maybe I don't want you to get me, Naruto-san." He couldn't resist chuckling at the small glare he received from the smaller boy. It was refreshing to see someone who wore their heart on their sleeves, so to speak.

"You are so weird," retorted the blond genin, giving the handkerchief back to its owner.

"So says the ninja wearing orange," commented the peddler with as straight a face as he could while graciously accepting his dirty handkerchief back, awaiting the outburst he knew was sure to come.

"Well what's so great about those dark clothes of yours?!"

Yep, like clockwork. And speaking of clockwork, the taller boy took out his pocket watch once more. It was time to go.

"Hey, don't ignore me, you jerk!"

"Sorry, Naruto-san, but I have to go. I can't stay here and argue about clothes right now." Getting up from the ground, Orion hefted his oversized backpack and prepared to be on his way. "Take care of the Shockwave Knives; you are the only person I've sold them to, so don't lose them." And just like that, the boy with the cane sword and the huge burden on his back started going on his way.

"Huh? Hey, wait! I'm the only one that has them? Why?" Naruto asked their maker, pushing his "slight" irritation aside. As awesome as they were, he was sure this weird guy would be selling them easy. Why only to him?

"It's 'cause I didn't feel like giving them to anyone else, Naruto-san. Just wait until I finish the recall function on the next batch. I'll guarantee you'll like them." Naruto had a couple more words to say.

"Hey, are you a ninja too?"

Orion stopped and turned to face Naruto after hearing that. "No, I've never been a ninja in my life, and I'm fairly certain I wasn't born in a Hidden Village. Why do you ask?" From the way Naruto grimaced and broke eye contact, it seems to have been something that made him uncomfortable or very embarrassed.

"How…why are you so strong then? If you really aren't a ninja, then how come you are so strong?" Normally, such a question might not seem like much of a problem, especially one as simple as that. However, in the earlier fight, his pride was injured a lot. Being beaten in a fight was always a sore point for Naruto ever since his Academy days. And now he lost against someone who claimed he wasn't a ninja. That _really_ stung.

He was almost expecting to be insulted, or being put down by the guy that beat him and made it look so easy, he had to deal with that before. He could deal with it again. He was caught of guard by what Orion did instead. He smiled.

"Well, since I'm obviously not an ordinary person, I guess I'm extraordinary instead! Ha-ha… Bye, Naruto-san!" Then he walked down the path he used to get to the shooting range, while making a mental countdown of the outburst that is sure to come. _'Five, four, three, two, one…"_

"HEY!! YOU HAVEN'T ANSWERED MY QUESTION, YOU HOBO!!" Just like clockwork.

"Then that means we'll have something to talk about next time!" Orion yelled back from the distance, not bothering to look back this time.

Of course, this left Naruto a bit miffed. Then, he remembered the cool trick he was just shown. And he was still conveniently in the practice range, too, perfect for Naruto to try out his knives ability! _'Let's see…he said to channel energy into them. Did he mean chakra? Bah, I couldn't understand a lot of the things he talked about. Let's see if this works, or I'll kick his ass the next time!'_ Naruto looked at the weapon in his hand, determined to do what he saw the maker do before. There were still plenty of targets left, and they were sure to be replaced or repaired someday anyhow. '_Now, how do I do this..?'_

Jogging at brisk space, despite the weight on his shoulders and back, Orion set out to get to the home of his current patrons. To be honest, he was thankful, really thankful that someone in this village let him in with them, for the moment at least, and that he wouldn't have to stay in that damn hospital anymore. Still, he didn't want to intrude on their hospitality more than was needed. He liked the family that took him in, and he did like working in their shop, but…

He'd feel better if he had a place of his own. He preferred privacy when working on his own projects, and he had several that he wanted to get back soon. Well, at least he was out of the hospital, until he had to go for the odd check-up sometimes. Orion knew the doctors didn't have the resources or the knowledge to deal with his condition. And he didn't feel like serving as their guinea pig for their medical annals.

He hated that feeling. He was interesting to them, and being interesting wasn't always a good thing, not when you ended up attracting the attention of the wrong people.

Sure, talking to people here and there, you'll hear a lot of good things about the Village Hidden in the Leaves. But despite that, it was still run, and inhabited, by fragile humans. And humans were known to ignore the negative aspects of things when it was convenient for them. Well, not all humans were like that, but if you look close enough, you might be surprised at the ugly things you could find, or the ugly things some people were willing to do for their own benefit.

While human experimentation was frowned upon pretty much everywhere, he was all but a foreign orphan in their eyes with no solid ties to the village. If Orion were to suddenly…"disappear", he'd doubted anyone would really miss him. And this was a ninja village, and ninjas were supposed to be good at being sneaky…

One might wonder what could lead a young boy to think things like that. Then again, while a ninja's life might be filled with much peril, in life, you don't have to be a ninja to experience the worst aspects of humanity. It would be foolish, to live under the notion that you had to actively put yourself in dangerous situations to find danger. However, that is neither here, nor there. Right now, his most immediate concerns weren't his health, his safety, or his privacy.

It was getting something to eat.

That's right. No thinking about loud customers, or shy girls, his missing companions, or even some of his projects that he wants to get back to, just food. The peddler was currently debating whether or not to stop somewhere on the way to eat, or order some takeout instead. That one Korean BBQ joint was something he had wanted to check out for a while now. And he did have some cash on hand so…

In the distance, Orion heard the unmistakable sound of a faint explosion. '_Crud, I forgot to tell him to be careful with how much power to put into them… Note to self, never sell dangerous instruments again without an instructional pamphlet.' _

Closing notes: My third chapter is DONE!!! …well, I had wanted to cover more things, but this was such a good place to cut things off. Again, any constructive criticism is welcome. I also apologize for taking so long to update.

"Kancho" is a Japanese term referring to the butt poke that is the Sennen Goroshi, which is basically what the "technique" is in actuality.

"usaratonkachi" means 'thick as a hammer'. It is an archaic Japanese term equivalent to "knuckle head". It is a canon term used by Sasuke.


	5. Always Include Instructions

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or anything created by Kishimoto. Enough said.

A/N: I changed up a couple of things in the last chapter. Minor things, but should help make it better. And I'm really sorry it took so long. Life got in the way. That, and a massive writer's block.

Chapter 4

With the sun high in the horizon, a new day has come for the people dwelling in the Village Hidden in the Sand, in the Wind Country. It was looking to be another ordinary day; at least, as ordinary as it could get in a ninja village situated in the desert.

"GET BACK HERE, YOU BRAT!!"

Never mind.

Temari was looking on at the unveiling situation, seemingly ashamed that her brother Kankuro, an otherwise skilled puppet master, had fallen victim once more to the girl they had saved from the desert some time ago. At least, she tried looking ashamed, but a corner of her lips was twitching.

"Nuh-uh, Kabuki-san! If I let you catch me, it wouldn't be a game of tag!" the girl taunted her pursuer. He didn't take it very well.

"STOP CALLING ME THAT, YOU LITTLE…!! I DON'T CARE IF WE HAVE TO ESCORT YOU!!! I'LL GET YOU FOR WHAT YOU DID TO MY PUPPETS!!" The reply Kankuro received to his threat was a young girl's laughter. That only served to infuriate him.

"If you want to get me, you have to catch me!!" And so the chase went on. Temari could only sigh at the absurd situation her brother was in. As a ninja, and one of the Kazekage's children, Kankuro was far from being incompetent. In fact, he, along with Temari and their younger brother, were the most promising genin in the village. For Kankuro not to catch a girl, even one as wily as their current ward, didn't reflect favorably on him.

Of course, the two buckets currently glued to his feet probably had something to do with it. Kankuro couldn't keep his footing properly with them, and kept tumbling and falling on his face. All in all, the young puppet master was made into a laughing stock by one slip of a girl who could have been their baby sister. He was not going to live that down for a long time.

However, Temari wouldn't lose her composure to laugh at her brother's odd plight, no matter how funny it was to see his outraged reaction when he discovered his prized puppets looking like they had been left at the mercy of a three-year-old with paints and ribbons. Karasu looked like a clown now, complete with a round red nose glued to the face and make-up and dyed hair to match. Kuroari's horns were tied up with pretty ribbons, and its elongated face was painted with make-up from her own seldom-used supplies and a piece of cloth was tied to the puppet like a skirt.

And Sanshouuo? Its wooden hide was now decorated with trees and pretty flowers. Temari thought she saw a rabbit, too. If anyone were to ask how a young girl managed to gain access to a ninja's most important tools without getting caught, she'd probably say that Kankuro had gotten too dependent on his status as one of the Kazekage's offspring and got lazy in properly securing his arsenal. That was mostly true; since no one ever dared to steal from them in the first place, he was completely unprepared for what happened. Then again, how would anyone be prepared for a harmless (sort of) prank? There was the possibility that they were still going to have an earful from their father later. For now, she'd secretly enjoy her brother's embarrassment for as long as she could.

And hope that only Kankuro got in trouble.

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There were several things Naruto wanted to do once he became a ninja, one of the most prominent being showing everyone he could do it, that he was a true ninja, and not some troublemaking punk like everyone thought. So of course he wondered why he was here, in the Hokage's office, being whisked away by some guards, all because he got careless in the practice range. How was he supposed to know that blowing up a couple of trees would get him in trouble? Sure, one of those trees nearly fell on him, but using those shocking wavy knife things was GREAT!! He could imagine himself mowing down enemies left and right with those things, sending them flying!

Yet here he was, in the Old Man's office again, just like when he was caught after a prank. And Kakashi-sensei was there as well, standing beside him with his nose buried in that same orange book he had been reading during the bell test.

"I said I was sorry!" said Naruto, his arms crossed and a petulant expression on his face, just like on several occasions in the past after he got caught for a prank.

The old Hokage could only pinch the bridge of his nose. "Naruto, what you did was rather reckless. You could have gotten hurt with what you were doing." Sarutobi said to the young genin.

"Hey, only one tree nearly fell on me, and I got out of the way fine…" The statement had begun with his usual energy and volume, but close to the end, he yielded to the Sandaime's gaze, feeling guilty for making the old man worry a bit.

Sarutobi sighed. "In the future, I want you to be more careful, Naruto. Next time you might really be hurt. Now, as for you, Kakashi…"

The moment Kakashi-sensei's name was mentioned, Naruto became very interested. His scarecrow of a sensei had been keeping quiet the whole time, but Naruto had assumed that he was just waiting for his turn to lecture him. That is, until the Old Man had begun speaking to the one-eyed man in a very familiar tone, one that Ojii-san tended to use… on Naruto.

Kakashi nearly dropped his book in surprise when he heard his name being called, although he quickly managed to reaffirm his grip on it. "Ho…Hokage-sama?" Kakashi stammered, his only visible eye widening when he found himself the target of the gaze of the man once called "God of Shinobi". Did the Hokage believe he had something to do with the mess his student made?

"I know this is the first time you've taken on a team, but I didn't quite expect you to teach them anything dangerous so early. It's going to take some time to repair the landscape of that training ground from whatever technique Naruto used."

He did.

Now, Kakashi was a skilled and experienced ninja, having fought in the Third Ninja War when he was no older than his genin, and despite what his students thought of him, he also had a close to flawless mission record; not that he was going to brag about that or anything to them anytime soon. Not once, in his entire career, was he EVER blamed by his superior for something that wasn't his fault.

Naruto was too busy looking back and forth between his teacher and the Hokage (quite rapidly) to give any comments whatsoever. This was too weird, in his opinion.

Kakashi took the time to compose himself. He cleared his throat before speaking once more. "Hokage-sama, I assure you that I have not taught my genins any sort of advanced attack techniques whatsoever. I have no idea how Naruto could have done the damage he did." The jounin crossed his arms over his chest and turned to his troublemaking student. "Now, Naruto, would you mind explaining how you caused that mess in the training grounds?"

Naruto was brought out of his momentary stupor by his sensei's question. He tried, but he just couldn't see any way out of this one. And just when he was enjoying watching his sensei flustered. He never thought that his sensei would act like that. He had been hoping that his dirty book would fall to the ground. Nah, it would have been funnier if Kakashi-sensei had stumbled and fallen on the floor of the office after the Hokage accused him for what happened in the training grounds.

But he was frustrated with the way Kakashi always put them through nothing but damn chores instead of a real ninja mission. Maybe by showing his new trick, he'd convince Kakashi that he was ready for a better mission!! He still had his bandolier, with a knife or two left, so he took one out, and charged it up…

And then Naruto remembered where he was, and why it was a bad idea to do that in here. The problem was _he didn't know how to turn it off._ "Oh, crap…" summed it up quite nicely for the blond.

When Kakashi saw Naruto take out the small throwing dagger, he didn't see anything special about aside from its slightly unusual shape. And when Naruto channeled a large amount of chakra into it, which made the engravings on it glow, then Kakashi got interested. But when Naruto uttered a curse from his mouth and started to shake the glowing weapon violently and hit it with his hand in a panic, then Kakashi got worried.

Before the Hokage managed to get out of his own chair, Kakashi made his move. He knocked the glowing weapon from Naruto's hand before his student could harm himself. To Naruto, it almost seemed like time slowed down as he saw the trajectory taken by the small weapon as it spun towards the wall.

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The relative tranquility of the day came to an abrupt end when an explosion resounded at the Hokage tower. Outside witnesses would look to the building for the telltale sign of black smoke rising through the air, only to find nothing to indicate any sign of such. Inside the tower, nearby ninja had mobilized to enter the room and deal with whatever attack might have happened. At the forefront was one Namiashi Raido, muttering and cursing under his breath a mile a minute as he went towards the disaster zone, all the while holding a brown bag in his left hand.

As it stood, it was a minor miracle the brown paper bag didn't break and spill out its contents on the floor. But Raido didn't care about that. No, the jounin with the disfiguring scar on the left side of his face had one big concern above all, and that was getting back to his shift as the Hokage's bodyguard. Most would think that was a boring post, but Raido liked being around the legend. Even in his old age, Sarutobi Hiruzen still carried himself with all the poise and dignity befitting a man of his status and position. He was called the God of Shinobi, due to the degree he took the ninja arts in his career, yet unlike others who would have taken the opportunity to brag about it or rub it in the faces of others, Sarutobi-sama was as humble a man as the leader of one of the most powerful ninja villages could ever be (Raido wouldn't be surprised if he was the only one with any humility. Hokage-sama was cool like that). Unlike others who complained about tasks like this, he appreciated a relatively calm assignment like bodyguard duty. Kami knows how hectic the life of a jounin can get. And now, _this _had to happen…

Sure, Kakashi was there… But sometimes even Raido wondered if the legendary Copy Nin was all he was cracked out to be by others. No, he'd finally try to relax and put the contents of the brown bag to their intended use as soon as he knew what the hell happened while he was away!

He got there first before anyone else, not counting those two chuunin protocol guards that were always stationed at the door of the office, regardless of how useful they could really be against a significant threat to the Hokage. Now, a jounin of sufficient skill like he himself made a lot more sense. No matter what his opinions were of Kakashi, what he thought of the chuunin guards, or what he thought of his own skill, none of that prepared him for what he encountered when he arrived in his destination.

What Raido encountered wasn't the scene of an attempt against the Hokage's life. No, what he encountered instead was a MESS!! The Hokage's desk was overturned and a sea of scattered papers - both crisp and wrinkled - about the entire room. Cracks of various sizes ran through the walls like a spider web, all the windows were shattered and the door was on its hinges. The Hokage's daily coffee had somehow spilled directly on the old man's face, who merely sat in his chair as silent as a statue, as if to slowly comprehend what just happened. His normally impeccably clean robes also had coffee stains in them, and his Kage hat lay on the floor. Whether it had been knocked from the Hokage's head or from the rack that lay on the floor as well, Raido did not know.

And then, right there, in the middle of the room, and looking every bit as ruffled as the Hokage, were Kakashi and one Uzumaki Naruto, both having very similar expressions to the Hokage's own. Raido could hear the others that were behind him entering the disaster room, but didn't really notice them. Not Mitarashi Anko, who NO ONE could really ignore, or any of the faceless ANBU who also converged around him. No, his attention wasn't to the two in the middle of the mess either. It was in the brown bag that fell on the floor, spilling some of its contents, when he let go of it in astonishment. Then, he lost his composure.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!?!" Raido yelled, holding his head with his now free hands. "Where's the fire!? Where's the bomb, where's the enemy!? Where's the disaster that struck during my lunch break!?" His totally unprofessional breakdown and extremely bewildered expression would have caused many to start laughing, but as it stood, everyone present wanted to know the same thing.

And then, in an eerie synchronicity, Kakashi and Naruto both responded in the exact same way. "He did it," they both said at the same time, pointing fingers at one another without breaking eye contact with the rather uncomfortable gazes of the other people present.

"Great! So it's your fault, not mine! We can all blame you!" Raido shouted at the two with an index finger furiously pointing at them, completely ignoring the looks he was receiving from everyone. The Hokage had some choice words to say about the situation they all found themselves in.

"Raido… maybe you shouldn't drink my coffee brew anymore…" the old Hokage said, pinching the bridge of his nose. Then, a good portion of the ninja present broke down in laughter. Poor Raido was flushed from embarrassment as he tried to salvage what could be salvaged from his lunch on the floor.

Meanwhile, Naruto erupted into a one-sided argument with Kakashi, who stayed cool as a cucumber during the exchange with his incensed student. The old Hokage Sarutobi palmed his face and shook his head, letting a long, suffered sigh escape from his mouth as he pondered the one thing every man and woman under the stars have asked themselves: "Why me?"

Raido just pondered why no one was helping him pick up his lunch.

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Of course, people wouldn't stop coming into the Hokage Tower for a while. Well, not in droves, of course. The Hokage wasted no time in getting things back under control after the second wave of people came over, concerned about his safety and health. It was a good thing Naruto was no longer in the room. Old Hiruzen really didn't want to give his people something negative to add about the things they already spoke of him. Sadly, Anko had volunteered to keep an eye on him while he discussed with Kakashi about the strange weapons Naruto had acquired. He had asked her to behave, but with Anko, that was most often very open to debate.

"Well, Hokage-sama, I must say these are quite the interesting toys Naruto has gotten," commented Kakashi, holding the knife he had liberated from his student. "I can't say I've seen them in any of the shops I frequent, and I'm certain that we'd all hear about it. They'd be selling quite well, and we'd probably have plenty more incidents like this on our hands."

The old Hokage sighed. "Yes, there is that possibility," He said. Then, a rusty chuckle escaped the aged lips of the leader of the village. "It seems that Naruto just won't keep out of trouble that easily, even if he's finally a genin."

Kakashi just raised his only visible eyebrow at the Hokage, and then just shook his head. Kakashi then put his focus back on the weapon in his hand. Despite the mess, he felt very tempted to try it out himself. Not in here, of course. He could already see in his mind many possibilities for using the knives in the field. And, since his own student didn't seem capable of handling them responsibly, maybe he should go and appropriate them for himself…

"Hokage-sama! Are you well?! Is everything okay?!" Blast it, Gai! Did he always have to come at the most inopportune moments?! Well, at least he toned it down when it came to the Hokage. Why that happened, Kakashi couldn't figure out. If he did, maybe he'd ask Hokage-sama what it was he did to have Gai act somewhat normally around him.

Gai didn't come alone, as Kakashi noticed that he was accompanied by his very own genin team. He didn't know if he should pity them or admire their fortitude for having such a… wait, one of them looked like a half-sized duplicate of Gai, down to the large eyebrows and the bowl cut! Well, at least the other two, a Hyuuga boy with long hair, and a girl with her hair done in two buns looked to be free of the spandex clad insanity.

Speaking of insanity, Gai went back to his unusual self when he noticed that the Copy Ninja was in the room. "Kakashi! My number 1 rival! As one would expect, you are first at the scene of this bombing! Truly, your flames of youth have propelled you to react so quickly to our Hokage's need that you have proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that you are a worthy and honorable challenge! Let us celebrate by down five hundred jumping jacks on our hands!"

"I'm sorry, did you say something?" The masked jounin gave his usual dismissive reply this time, knowing full well that Gai would erupt into a short rant.

"KAKASHI!!! Curse your hip and cool ways!!!"

Gai's own students were well aware of Kakashi due to his sensei's talks about his "Eternal Rival". They were also well aware of their instructor's eccentricities regardless of his skill. Well, two of them, at least. Lee was about as close to worshiping Maito Gai as it could get, never mind that he already dressed like a half-sized duplicate of him. Neji kept his expression quite neutral, but he did give a bemused snort at his own self-appointed rival's actions when Lee was starting to get fired up in response to Kakashi's seeming disrespect for his idol, although he still stood at attention like the rest of them. '_Good thing Lee isn't foolish enough to misbehave in front of Hokage-sama,' _thought Neji, ignoring Lee's pointed stare as he redirected his attention at himself, who, having heard the noise his teammate made, bitterly wondered if the snort was directed at their sensei.

None of the two boys expected Tenten to come up between the two men. In fact, Lee's expression was almost comically shocked, when Tenten all but rudely pushed Gai-sensei to the side before snatching an object from Hatake-san's hands! Neji merely let his eyebrows rise somewhat. As… unusual as this behavior was for the normally polite kunoichi, it wouldn't do for him to throw aside the decorum required of a member of the Hyuuga clan.

Lee, on the other hand, looked like he was about to have a seizure and was about to erupt and chastise Tenten when she spoke up to Kakashi. "Where did you get this?"

Kakashi could only raise his visible eyebrow at the girl's somewhat unexpected question. "Well, I got them from one of my students, who kept muttering about some hobo when I asked him about where _he _got them from."

"A hobo, huh?" Tenten replied and nodded thoughtfully. Lee couldn't take it anymore. "Tenten-sama! What is the meaning of this?! First you rudely ignore Gai-sensei, and then you…!!" Whatever else he might have said was cut off when Maito Gai chastised his student on the spot.

"Lee! Behave yourself! Such conduct is unbecoming in the presence of Hokage-sama!" Gai, of course, was struggling to maintain decorum himself in the presence of the Hokage, resisting his impulses of making a youthful speech in regards to Lee's actions, but how would he guide his students through the youthful path if he didn't act as an example of such actions?

"Oh!" Tenten blushed in embarrassment when her previous actions sank in. "I'm sorry, Gai-sensei!!" she said, turning to her instructor. "I didn't mean to shove you aside like that!" She bowed as she apologized. Whatever Gai might have said was interrupted by a woman's scream.

"GET BACK HERE, YOU BRAT!!!"

That sounded like Mitarashi Anko.

"NO WAY, YOU CRAZY LADY!!!"

And that sounded like one Uzumaki Naruto.

"WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU I'M GOING TO MAKE YOU CUDDLE WITH A PYTHON!!!" Anko sounded very angry.

"NO WAY!! YOU KEEP YOUR SNAKES AWAY FROM ME!!!" Naruto sounded very desperate. And from the sound of things, they both seemed to be getting closer to the office rather quickly.

Sarutobi just gave a small sigh. That boy just got out of trouble and he's already in more? And with Anko no less. Perhaps it was time he should search for a successor... he couldn't keep up with these children anymore. At this rate, they were going to be the death of him. At the moment, he couldn't even remember what possessed him to let Naruto in Anko's clutches…

It didn't matter what the other people present might have said in regards to the noises they were hearing. But that wasn't because the Hokage was ignoring them. No, it was because the door to the office burst open suddenly, with Naruto being chased by a very angry Anko, who for some reason had her customary trench coat wrapped around her waist like it was a skirt.

The poor boy was trying desperately to keep away from the dangerous woman, but he didn't quite keep track of where he was going in his rush and bumped into Neji, knocking him over.

"Excuse me, miss!" Naruto got up as quickly as he could, barely missing Anko's attempt at catching him, and completely missing the very annoyed glare on Neji's face at Naruto getting his gender wrong.

While the Hokage got up from his desk to try and pacify the situation, Tenten tugged at Kakashi's sleeve to get his attention once more.

"Kakashi-san, I think I might know the person who sold these daggers to your student…"

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'_This isn't fair!'_ thought Naruto angrily. _'It's not my fault the old man's office was messed up like that! It's Kakashi-sensei's fault! No, it's that hobo's fault! No wonder they were so cheap! He knew this would happen!! THAT JERK!!! When I see him, I'll…'_

"Here we are now, everyone," Tenten announced to her companions, one Uzumaki Naruto and his jounin instructor, Hatake Kakashi. She somehow managed to convince her team she'd be fine on her own, which was fine. Kakashi-san still got lectured by Gai-sensei about keeping his "lovely student Tenten" safe from harm, or there would be consequences. That was the edited version, what Gai-sensei actually said was with his usual wild histrionics and "youth" thing. The place she took them was the weapon shop owned and operated by her family.

Tenten grew up around all sorts of ninja equipment, and her fascination with them from a young age helped lead her into mastering every weapon she could get her hands on, starting with the basics of kunai and shuriken. At the age of eight, she could outperform everyone in out of her age group with those, striking a bull's-eye with each and every throw. At the age of twelve, she was the best Kunoichi in her graduating class, her skills making her capable of throwing weapons other than kunai and shuriken most adult shinobi never bothered with in their careers. And she was no slouch in the melee department either.

Her place in Team Gai, along with her teammates, set her as long distance support while the boys handled the close quarters stuff. She didn't mind doing long distance sniping, though. She was damn good at what she did, and they knew it.

Still, there was only so much she could handle from the boys sometimes, which was part of the reason why she was taking Naruto and Kakashi on her own. Entering the store, they were greeted by her uncle Satoshi, who tended to mind the counter while her father worked the forge in the back, although they did trade off duties and sometimes worked together on some orders.

"Hey, Ten-chan! Didn't think I'd see you today! Going to restock again?" Her uncle was a jolly man, and a bit on the plump side with a bit of a stubble on his face that he never seemed to be able to get rid of. However much she might love the man, she wasn't quite fond of him calling her "Ten-chan" much.

"No, Uncle, I don't have to restock yet," she responded, rolling her eyes in annoyance. "Say, is Tatsuya around?" Her uncle chuckled and shook his head.

"Nah, that boy hasn't come in yet. He is running a bit late, though. Probably got hungry or something along the way," He took notice of the two that were accompanying her but didn't react otherwise to Naruto. "So, what can I do for you gentlemen? Did my darling Ten-chan start bragging about the quality of our goods and pulled you guys here?" Satoshi couldn't help but chuckle at his niece's embarrassed flush.

"Uncle!" Tenten waved her hands in a front of her in a warding gesture. "It's nothing like that, I was just…" Her flush got deeper when Satoshi-san started laughing uproariously. Kakashi looked at the scene playing in front of him with a rather bemused expression behind his masked face. Naruto was looking around the store, looking at the items on display and wondering about the prices they had.

"Ten-chan, I was just kidding!" Satoshi said. Tenten grumbled in annoyance and broke her gaze from her uncle. "Hey, don't be like that!" Shaking his head, he turned his attention from his annoyed niece to Naruto. "Hey boy, you see anything you like?"

Naruto was about to say something when the bell announcing someone arriving at the store rang.

"Satoshi-san, sorry I'm late, I was eating at this restaurant and met with some people and lost track of…"

Naruto quickly turned and pointed angrily at the owner of that familiar voice. "YOU?!?!" he yelled.

Naruto's outburst got Kakashi's attention and he took a good look at the boy who just came in. He had shoulder-length brown hair with bangs obscuring his eyes somewhat, some jagged dark stripes marking his face on both sides, and he thought there was something in his forehead as well. He was wearing a long-sleeved gray shirt that was somewhat loose on his frame, which had the right sleeve rolled up a bit, showing a bandaged forearm with a leather band coiling around it. His pants were dark blue in color, and he wore gloves oh his hands and leather sandals on his feet. He also had a very large and heavy-looking backpack, which he was just taking off, and a wooden cane. As Kakashi was taking in the details of the newcomer, Naruto closed the distance and got in the boy's face angrily.

"You… It's all your fault!!!" he yelled at the boy's face. In return, the boy just cocked an eyebrow and tilted his head a bit. Then, he straightened it out suddenly and spoke back.

"Oh! Naruto-san! Is something the matter?" he said in a conversational tone as if he hadn't just gotten yelled at. The blond boy did not seem to take it well.

"What do you mean 'is something the matter?' you stupid hobo!?!?! YOU TRICKED ME!!!"

"Huh? What do you mean I tricked you? What did I do?" He narrowed his eyes when comprehension dawned on him. "Did something happen with the stuff I sold you?"

"Hello, Tatsuya," Tenten cut in before Naruto could respond.

"Huh? Tatsuya? Wasn't your name-?" But Naruto found himself ignored by the boy in favor of the girl.

"Ah! Hey Tenten-san! How are y-" the newly named Tatsuya was interrupted when the girl pulled him by his ear.

"Tatsuya… let's go to the back so we can have a nice long chat," she said in a no-nonsense tone. "You two, follow us, please." And she walked behind the counter, pulling the protesting boy along by the ear.

"Tenten-san…?"

"Don't 'Tenten-san' me, Tatsuya!" the girl responded. "You have some explaining to do, and it better be good."

"Well..." Kakashi said, looking at the retreating pair, "Let's follow them, Naruto."

"Huh? Oh, right, sure, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto followed after the jounin.

Satoshi called back to his niece when Naruto cleared the desk.

"Ten-chan! Please don't maul our employee!" the jolly man exclaimed. "You could scare the customers away!" Satoshi shook his head, even as a small grin was plastered on his face. "Oh well, let's see if Tatsu-kun brought any leftovers". He rubbed his hands, chuckling at the prospect of free food.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"But Asuma-sensei…!!"

"Hahaha, it's alright Ino. Take it easy. I'm sure he didn't mean to offend you."

"So you keep saying, but still…!"

Shikamaru just sighed at his female teammate's troublesome behavior. When Ino started on a rant about this or that, there was just no shutting her up sometimes. She certainly didn't stop even when she was walking, like they were all doing right now after the meal they had just eaten. Sure, he'd known her for years, and yes, their fathers were old friends and stuff, but really, couldn't Ino have been a little less annoying? She was bossy, overbearing, and a huge pain in the butt a lot of the time. Oh, and she was a Sasuke fangirl, always quarreling with Haruno Sakura.

He secretly had issues with the situation between those two girls, but it wasn't really worth it to complain about it. Especially not to Ino, but it wasn't because he didn't want to deal with her nagging. Well, not completely.

'Why do girls always have to complicate things?' Shikamaru sighed again, or tried to, since it came out more like a groan.

"You say something, Shikamaru?!" Ino stopped, shifting her attention from her pouting to her teammate, and making all of them stop walking as well. She stood at her full height (not that it made much of a difference; Shikamaru was taller than her after all), her stance rigid and eyes sharp. She pointed furiously at the lazy boy, the next words on the tip of her tongue, ready to shout out the moment he spoke again.

"You are such a pain…" Shikamaru's comment quickly met with annoyed retaliation from the girl in the form of a head slap. "Ow!"

"Ha! Serves you right, jerk!" And with that, Ino stuck her tongue out at him and resumed her pace, head held high like she was someone of importance, and not a bratty preteen kunoichi.

'_Troublesome…'_ Shikamaru thought. _'Why do I even bother?' _The lazy boy then looked to his other teammate, Chouji, who was happily munching on a bag of chips, barbecue flavored, despite already having finished quite a feast at the restaurant they just left.

Really, Ino would benefit if she were more like him. A lot of people would. And no, not in the whole eating a lot of food thing, although it might do Ino some good to gain a few more pounds. She was too scrawny for her own good. What was it with women and dieting?

It was a shame that most didn't see past Chouji's bulk and large appetite. Despite his great insecurities that he'd developed growing up, the Akimichi boy was as loyal and devoted a friend as anyone could ever hope for. He would never break up a friendship over something petty. It would kill the boy. And Nara Shikamaru knew without a fact that there was no one he would trust more than his best friend Chouji in looking out for him.

Unfortunately, the rather thoughtful state he was in took him back to the troublesome events that happened a while ago. Yes, they were troublesome, because they were responsible for one Yamanaka Ino's current foul mood…

_They were waiting on Asuma as he went to the restroom while they were waiting to be attended to. It had been a nice excuse to keep from being under his mother's nagging for a few more hours, so Nara Shikamaru took Asuma-sensei's invitation for food without much consideration. Chouji, of course, wouldn't deny an invitation for free food. Ino, however, seemed like she went along so as not to be left out._

_There wasn't really much in the way of conversation going. Chouji was pretty quiet as it were most of the time, Shikamaru didn't really feel like talking about anything, and there was nothing he could think about that could even help start a conversation with the shrieking banshee known as Yamanaka Ino. For her part, the girl looked every bit as bored as he was._

_It had been a rather uneventful day. A bit of training, lunch, a mission, and now dinner with his teammates and his teacher. That was it. Nothing special. Nope. Even Ino's whining and complaining was pretty much normal when it came to Team 10. But having to put up with her was still a major drag. He wondered when she would finally drop talking about the "injustice" that was her 'rival' Sakura being on the same team as her precious "Sasuke-kun, knowing it wouldn't come soon enough._

_For the time being, Shikamaru was grateful that she was sort of quiet now. There was only so much he could take of her blathering._

_Having nothing better to do, he just went and looked around the place. People were coming and going. That was nothing special in itself. It was a restaurant. Customers came, ate, paid, and left. The most noteworthy person he saw entering was a long-haired boy about his age with a walking stick and an enormous backpack that seemed a bit too heavy for him, if the slight limp he had was any indication._

_He walked over to a table next to theirs, putting his burden on the side of a chair. He then made his way over to the cash register to put in his order and sat down at the chair next to his backpack. Ah, now Shikamaru recognized him. He was that peddler that was selling trinkets and stuff around the village some time ago. He hadn't seen the guy around in a while, not that he bothered much to keep track of random strangers._

_He could recall Ino buying something from him. What it was, Shikamaru didn't really pay much attention to it. He was tuning her out that time. That's what he usually did when she started acting like a fangirl about Sasuke._

_Ugh, why couldn't they pick a place where they could sit outside? He couldn't really watch the clouds from the table they were in._

"_Hey, you guys mind if I sit here? Don't really feel like eating alone."_

_Huh? Oh, that was unexpected. Well, there was one extra chair aside from the one where Asuma sensei would use, so what the heck. "Yeah, whatever, suit yourself." Later, Shikamaru would regret shooting his mouth off like that._

"_Shikamaru!" Yeah, because he always regretted having to put up with Ino's nagging. Was it him, or did Ino look a bit worried?_

"_Hello," their guest said, ignoring the blonde girl's hiss. "You can call me Tatsuya. What are your names?" Shikamaru introduced himself first, seeing as it was his fault they had to deal with the guy._

"_I'm Nara Shikamaru. This guy to my right," he pointed to his chubby friend then, "is Akimichi Chouji."_

"_Hello," Chouji greeted quietly, surprised slightly at the friendly salute the stranger sent his way._

"…_and that blonde thing over there…"_

"_Hey!!" Ino complained, of course._

"…_goes by the name of Yamanaka Ino." The guy chuckled a bit after Shikamaru finished introducing his group._

"_Pleasure to meet all of ya." Tatsuya then looked towards Ino, who for some reason, seemed to be a bit nervous around the guy. "Say, have we met before?"_

"_Err… no… I don't think so, ehehe…" Ino gave out a nervous laugh? Shikamaru perked up at the blatant lie. Chouji also caught on as well._

"_Ah, right!" Tatsuya exclaimed, snapping his fingers. "You are one of my former customers. You bought some earrings from me, right?" That was what Ino bought? Some earrings? Ah, right. She put them on once and then Shikamaru never saw her using them again._

"_Oh, oh yes, I did…" Okay, so Ino was acting rather guilty for some reason. That was definitely new. She never really acted guilty about anything. Well, there was THAT, but Ino never really spoke about it._

"_Are you okay, Ino-san? You seem upset for some reason." In response to his query, the girl put up an annoyed front to make the guy stop it._

"_I'm fine! It's none of your business!" she snapped at the boy._

"_Sheesh, okay okay, fine," the boy said, crossing his arms over his chest in a rather defiant posture. Well, more defiant than anything Shikamaru would ever do. Or maybe he was just imagining things. After all, just because the boy wasn't cowed by Ino's temper yet, didn't mean that wouldn't be the case later. Well, seeing as Ino clammed up, breaking eye contact with the boy and being all around surly, Shikamaru felt it was up to him to get things rolling again. He might have liked quiet, but the awkward silence that would have ensued if they didn't keep trying to make an attempt at conversation until the food arrived was not something he really wanted to deal with._

_And then Chouji beat him up to it._

"_Hey, didn't you used to sell carvings and stuff?" Tatsuya regarded Chouji with a pleased expression in his face._

"_Yeah, I did. It's what I sometimes do to get some cash when I'm in a new place. What, did you want something?"_

"_Well, no, not really. You just sort of disappeared and I heard some people ask about you, so I was curious. Sorry…" Most people wouldn't have understood just how hard it was for the boy to open up like this to a new acquaintance, aside from Shikamaru and their parents. The taunts and ridicule Chouji had to endure growing up had left an impression that wasn't so easy to wipe off. It really grated on his nerves when Ino, who he had known almost as long as Chouji, would sometimes slip in regards to this. Still, this Tatsuya was behaving well enough so far, but if that changed, well, Shikamaru might have actually felt compelled to do something about him…_

"_Oh, well, I'm not really doing that at the moment. I'm staying with the owners of a weapons' shop and I'm currently working for them. I was doing an errand today, collecting scraps that could be recycled to make new things." Then, he patted his backpack. "My supplies are back where I'm staying. I needed space for carrying the scraps I found. I also went and picked up some used stuff from people who were donating. Most of it comes from them." The backpack then flopped on the floor; the muffled metallic sounds it made proved the truth about its contents to the three genin. "Is something the matter?" the long-haired boy asked when he noticed the rather shocked expressions of Team 10._

_Ino spoke up first. "You mean that… thing… is filled with nothing but old junk?" _

_Now, if only it was an intelligent question that didn't have an obvious answer. Shikamaru wanted to groan._

"_Isn't it… really, really heavy?" Thank you Chouji, for asking a much more reasonable question._

_Tatsuya just shrugged. "I guess, but I'm used to it now. It's not the first time I've worked at a blacksmith's before, and you have to work with heavy stuff sometimes. I prefer pounding the metal on top of the anvil myself, but I sort of asked for this errand, so I can't really complain."_

"_Well, you guys made a new friend, I see." Shikamaru was about to question the sanity of the boy when they were interrupted by the arrival of their Sensei. Sarutobi Asuma was missing his customary cigarette. The bearded jounin couldn't smoke in this place, something for which Shikamaru was quite grateful. He still remembered the first time they met him. The smell and the smoke coming from the jounin drove him and his teammates to tears. But, he turned out to be a pretty swell guy, if a little strange, in Shikamaru's opinion._

"_Oh, I'm sorry, should I leave?" Asuma-sensei regarded Tatsuya with a bemused expression._

"_No, it's fine, kid," the man said, chuckling softly. "I'm Sarutobi Asuma, the jounin instructor of these kids here."_

"_I'm Tatsuya; just Tatsuya. No last name." The jounin regarded the boy with a smile as he sat with his students and their guest._

"_No last name, huh? Trying to be mysterious, kid?" The 'kid' actually looked sheepish at the bearded man's comment._

"_Err, no, not really," the boy scratched the left mark in his face as he said this. It wasn't that rare for ninja or other people to bear some sort of marks on their face, so Shikamaru didn't really see the marks on the boy's face as anything out of the ordinary, nor did anyone else for that matter. No, the only thing out of the ordinary was still Ino, who was still fidgeting slightly in her seat instead of being her usual troublesome self. Wait, wasn't that a good thing?_

_Shikamaru would have laughed at Ino's slight jump when Tatsuya focused on her once more, if it hadn't been such a bother._

"_What do you think, Ino-san? Am I trying to be mysterious?" The question was innocent enough, but Ino still seemed to be uncharacteristically nervous. _

"_N-no, not really," the small giggle that came from her afterwards sounded forced to even Chouji's ears. Even Asuma seemed a bit interested at the odd behavior of his female student, but said nothing and just looked with amusement._

_Asuma picked up their orders as soon as they called from the register and counter about their meals being ready. Since Tatsuya ordered after they did, he was still waiting for his order. That didn't stop him from trying to pick up conversation with the people present at the table while they ate, since he had to wait for his own order to be ready. He asked Asuma if he was related in any way to the Sandaime Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen._

"_I sure am. He's my dad," the bearded jounin replied._

"_Oh, Hokage-sama is your father? Cool," the boy said to the man, some degree of admiration on his tone. Asuma chuckled softly before replying._

"_Yeah, he's a pretty cool guy, my old man." He then resumed consumption of his food._

_Soon, Tatsuya's order was ready. He had ordered a beef dish similar to Chouji's, albeit not in the same quantities. "Heh, Chouji-san, it looks like we both like beef, eh?" Chouji tried talking with his mouth full, but the long-haired boy stopped him. "Whoa there, chew your food first, then talk, big guy." Chouji looked a bit embarrassed with himself. Ino snorted derisively at her teammate's lack of manners. Shikamaru would have said something, but he didn't really feel like arguing with her at the moment. Causing a spectacle like that in front of their new acquaintance was not something Shikamaru felt like doing. Too bad it seemed said acquaintance didn't have the same views._

"_Ino-san, are you sure you have enough food?" Ino nearly spit out what she was chewing at the moment when she heard that question. Shikamaru saw Chouji nearly do the same. He was reminded of the time Chouji made the mistake of commenting on the girl's eating habits. Or rather, lack of any real eating habits. Apparently, his chubby friend also remembered what Ino did to him when he asked that very legitimate question._

"_Excuse me?!" the girl asked, the disbelief apparent in her voice. Her expression of shock was rather funny, and Shikamaru would have laughed if it wasn't such a bother._

"_I asked if you have enough food there, Ino-san. I think I was very clear," responded Tatsuya as if he had asked something perfectly casual. Well, it was perfectly casual, but not when it came to someone as troublesome as Yamanaka Ino._

"_I'll have you know I'm on a diet, mister!" the indignant blonde stated, her face flushed lightly due to annoyance or anger. The dish Ino had ordered was rather meager, especially in comparison with the quantities in the plates of the men, let alone Chouji._

"_Why's that?" Shikamaru wanted to groan, but decided instead to try and keep eating and pretend that Tatsuya wasn't about to commit assisted suicide by making Mount Yamanaka erupt._

_However, the Yamanaka girl seemingly mastered herself, and flicked her long ponytail, her face taking on a rather smug and self-satisfied expression. Great, now she was going to brag. "Well, I'll have you know that a girl such as me has to take great care of their figure." Ino looked quite pleased with herself, apparently thinking her explanation was enough to put the boy in his place._

"_Err, Ino-san, are you flirting with me?" Shikamaru did a spit take at that. Chouji nearly choked on his food, which Asuma quickly dealt with. The expression of complete astonishment on the girl's face was unexpectedly funny. _

"_W-wo-WHAT?!" a few of the surrounding patrons probably were probably looking their way now due to her outburst._

"_No offense, Ino-san, but you are kinda scrawny… like a twig, for my tastes." Yep, Tatsuya was a dead man. Ino was very vain, and proud of her looks. Even though she really was a bit on the scrawny side, Shikamaru knew he'd never really say it to her face unless he felt like getting pounded. Or have Ino yell at him. Of course, Shikamaru would never really want either of those things to happen to him._

"_Twig?!" Oh, no…_

_In all honesty, the lazy boy would have rather Ino pound Tatsuya to paste rather than try to berate his ear off, which was what she was doing at the moment. The girl went listing off reasons why she would never attempt flirting with him, which included boring tastes in clothing, slightly unkempt hair, lousy personality (like she was one to talk about having a lousy personality…), brainpower, smell (huh? Why smell? He didn't have a strong smell or anything)…_

"_... And for that matter, why would I even think of trying to date you when Sasuke-kun is so much better than you?!" With that final verbal attack, Ino crossed her arms in front of her chest, glaring at their guest, looking at Tatsuya as if daring him to say something else._

"_Question: Who is this Sasuke guy? And when did I ever show any interest in dating you?" This time, Shikamaru didn't bother keeping from palming his face with his hands._

"_Great going, smart guy… now you've gone and done it…" This was certainly going to get Ino to gush about her 'precious Sasuke-kun'._

_What followed was a speech that might as well be a standard lecture all of Sasuke's fangirls had to memorize before joining the Sasuke Fanclub (that, and methods on pointless female bickering and other annoying behavior… what a drag) done to educate Tatsuya, who was quite frankly new in the village so he probably didn't know about Sasuke, as unlikely as that might be, seeing how popular the Uchiha heir was around Hidden Leaf but it took all kinds. Maybe._

_Tatsuya, oddly, looked thoughtful even as Ino rounded up her "Sasuke 101" lecture. Shikamaru wondered if Ino actually got through to him. That would be annoying. Tatsuya snapped his fingers as if he suddenly realized something. "Oh, right! I have heard of a Sasuke, but I didn't know it was the same guy you were talking about." After said realization, the boy did the smart thing and attempted to finish off his meal. Ino wasn't about to drop it, however._

"_Hold it, who told you about Sasuke before?" Ino seemed annoyed that Tatsuya didn't seem all that impressed by Sasuke._

'_Just focus on finishing your food, Shikamaru. Don't pay attention to your pain of a teammate…' the lazy boy thought to himself._

"_Ino, aren't you going to finish eating your food?" As an Akimichi, Chouji held a high value over food, so he was probably looking to see if he could get some more food, since the girl was letting hers go cold. Too bad it seemed Ino wasn't going to renege her meager offering to the chubby boy._

"_Don't even think about it, Chouji! You already got your own food!" she snapped at him. Huh, first she was nervous around their guest, and now she was back to her normal troublesome self. Figures. And it was actually an improvement on her personality, compared to most of the time._

_Tatsuya drank some of his beverage, probably to help swallow that last bite he took. Then he went and took another bite. 'Finally,' Shikamaru thought. The guy got the hint and started tuning her out. Of course, Ino hated being ignored, so she wasn't about to drop it. _

"_Excuse me, Tatsuya-_san, _But I asked you who told you about Sasuke-kun," she said in a 'you'd better pay attention to me or suffer' tone, although a rather mild one so far. Tatsuya seemed oblivious to the impending danger aimed at him._

_Before Ino did something stupid like jabbing him with her utensils, the boy answered. "Oh, I heard about him from this guy I know, Uzumaki Naruto." He then turned his attention to Chouji and offered to eat anything if Chouji didn't have space for it. Chouji said that wouldn't be necessary, and started to eat his meal a bit faster. Well that was a first. Normally, it would be the other way around._

_Not seeming to care whether or not she still held the boy's attention, the blonde looked rather insulted by the mention of Naruto being the source of his first knowledge of Sasuke. "Wait, you heard of… from NARUTO of all people?"_

"_Oh, you know Naruto-san? I didn't know you were friends with him." She scoffed with a smidgen of disbelief at this comment._

"_Oh, please, I wouldn't be caught dead being friends with that idiot," the dismissive tone Ino spoke with couldn't be more obvious if she tried. Shikamaru thought he noticed Tatsuya's eyebrows pinch together a bit, but they loosened up as quickly as he noticed them._

"_Why do you say that, Ino-san? He doesn't seem like a bad person," Tatsuya said curiously._

_What followed was a pretty standard explanation on Uzumaki Naruto. However, in contrast with the praises she all but sung about Sasuke, what Ino said about Naruto seemed more like a list of grievances about his personality, volume of voice, bad choice of clothes, and his common antics, like his pranks and stupid boasts. Basically, nothing really positive about him, not even a little, as usual. Nothing good was ever said about Naruto, at least, not that Shikamaru had ever heard. It had always been like that, so he never really bothered thinking too hard about it._

"_I think you're being unfair, Ino-san," Tatsuya said, giving the girl a rather pointed look, not caring for the surprised expression in the Ino's face, and by extension, ignoring similar expressions in Chouji's and Shikamaru's face, although the Nara hid his as well as he could. As far as they could remember, NO ONE had ever stood up for Naruto on anything. Ever._

"_Hmph, shows what you know," the girl said snidely. However, it didn't seem like Tatsuya was about to let her have the last word. _

"_Oh, I know plenty of things, Ino-san," he spoke in a serious tone. "One of them being what should really constitute as eating right." 'Uh-oh…' Shikamaru then went and gave the remainder of his dinner to Chouji, which the plump boy readily accepted. The situation was a bit too troublesome to ignore for his tastes. There was no way this wouldn't end up in a fight of some sort (good thing he wasn't really that hungry.)_

"_Oh, really? And what is that supposed to mean, Mister?" Ino crossed her arms as she said this, giving the boy a very dangerous look. Tatsuya started his counter attack in earnest. _

"_You tell me, Miss Kunoichi. How are you supposed to have energy for anything if you starve yourself like you are doing?"_

"_Are you deaf as well as stupid? I already told you-" Ino was interrupted before she even noticed she wasn't denying starving herself._

"_The same crap I'd probably expect an ordinary civilian who doesn't really do any exercise or other physical activities would do, instead of getting off getting off their butts and doing some proper work outs." At that, Ino did her best imitation of a fish breathing water._

_The offended blonde got herself back under control and struck back with equal force. "I'll have you know that I'm more active than most girls you've ever met! Not that any girls would want to even spend any time with you, with that attitude." Wait, why did Tatsuya look like he was stifling a laugh? Oh, he was._

"_What's so funny, if I may ask?" Ino was leaning a bit too much into what probably was the long-haired boy's personal space, probably to give him a death stare as close to his face as she could._

"_Oh, nothing…" He didn't seem all that sorry. "But seriously, how do you have any stamina whatsoever if you starve yourself like you are doing? Our bodies need food for energy and working properly. How are you going to have enough energy for your missions if you don't eat right?" _

_Chouji nearly spit out his food, but instead of shock, it was because he was trying not to laugh out loud. He swallowed the contents in his mouth and put in his own two cents. "I've been saying that to her for the longest time and she never listens!" Shikamaru couldn't help but allow the corner of his mouth to quirk up a bit._

_Tatsuya smiled at Ino. "Heh, your friend over there is pretty smart. You really should listen to him more often." Chouji beamed at the compliment, even as Ino got red in the face, whether from embarrassment or anger, the Nara boy couldn't tell. Heck, he couldn't even tell how they got from this guy defending Naruto to criticizing Ino's eating habits. It was all so weird._

_He then looked towards Asuma-sensei. The jounin had been quiet while Ino was trying to argue with Tatsuya, but he wasn't ignoring what was happening, if the amused smile on his face was any indication. Not that he seemed like he was going to speak up any time soon. In any case…_

"_Weren't you two talking about Naruto?" he asked the pair. "How'd you get sidetracked from it so easily?" _

_For some inexplicable reason, the two of them responded with a simultaneous "Huh?" before looking at one another with raised eyebrows. _

_Shikamaru snorted after looking at their faces. This made them both turn to look at him. "No wonder you guys get along so well." Later, he would wonder what made him talk at that moment, but, if you were to ask him, the scandalized look on Ino's face that appeared when he said that was totally worth it. Not that he'd admit it in close proximity to said blonde. He did value his continued mental health, after all._

_Ino then started spouting denials about getting along with 'this jerk' as she called him. Then, said "jerk" just rolled his eyes at the blonde girl._

"_If you ask me, Shikamaru-san," Tatsuya said in an even tone, "I'm not sure she'd even tell me why she puts Naruto-san down so much, even if I asked her."_

_Shikamaru noticed his sensei chuckling to the side. "Well, Ino can be a rather stubborn girl. She really should lighten up more." Smart man. He made the pain-in-the-neck Yamanaka focus on their teacher to try and distract her and diffuse her temper a bit. It worked._

"_But Asuma-sensei…" she started whining to the jounin, trying to sound betrayed._

_Later, dinner was over without any more incidents and Team 10's guest was talking to Chouji while they were exiting the restaurant. He had been asking Chouji about his family and seemed interested in seeing some of the Akimichi family techniques in action. Shikamaru looked towards Ino. She had remained quiet, even after Tatsuya actually gave her a small bit of the meat on his dish, claiming she needed it more than he did, to put some actual meat on her bones. This prompted Ino to jump to her feet, fully intending to teach him a lesson once and for all, but Asuma-sensei quickly prevented her from doing so._

_Looking to the troublesome female again, Shikamaru noticed she wasn't just going to let the situation with the long-haired boy go. He wondered if Asuma would stop her again, but it probably wasn't going to happen. The Nara boy was certain Asuma just let things happen as they did for a reason… why? He didn't know, he probably thought it was funny._

"_Hey, you," she said to Tatsuya, interrupting as he was whispering something to Chouji. The former peddler turned to regard her, staring at her from behind his bangs._

"_What?" Ino stalked towards the boy and looked at him in the eyes._

"_I don't get you," she said. However, Tatsuya didn't seem that concerned about it._

"_Yes, and?" he asked. Ino huffed impatiently, crossing her arms across her chest._

"_You said you wanted to know why I put down Naruto? Well, I want to know why you defend that idiot. If you've actually met him, then you have to know how he is." Her tone of voice was all but daring him to prove her wrong. So much for her being nervous around this guy, Shikamaru thought._

"_For the record," he started, "I know he's loud, and I know he's clumsy and maybe a fool, but that's nothing that can't be fixed in time. Also," he then narrowed his eyes slightly. "He's an honest person, something I like a lot. And he's been nice enough to me as it is, so I'm nice to him as well. It's as simple as that Ino-san."_

_Ino looked at him oddly. "That's it?" Tatsuya just shrugged at her._

"_When you do nice things for others, sometimes, good things happen. You should try it sometime, Ino-san." The boy then took something out of his pocket. It was a square-shaped pocket watch with a rather thick chain attached to it. His eyes widened when he took a look at the time. "Oh crap, I'm LATE!!"  
_

_Making sure his enormous backpack was properly strapped on, he said his goodbyes to Team 10 and apologized for troubling them, quickly getting on his way as he did so. Shikamaru noticed the rather... subdued expression on Ino's face. That was out of place... and it changed as soon as Tatsuya said his farewell to Ino._

"_See ya later, Little Twig!"_

_Asuma-sensei had to restrain her from chasing after the boy and killing him._

Which brought them to the present time, and Ino ranting.

"Is something wrong, Shikamaru?" the lazy genin was brought out of his reminiscing by Chouji.

"Nah, just thinking," he told Chouji, one of the corners of his mouth quirking up.

"You're always thinking, Shikamaru." Chouji's reply made a snort escape from his friend.

"Yeah, I guess I am, Chouji. I just wish it was about pleasant things more often." Chouji looked at Shikamaru curiously.

"Really? Why's that?" Chouji asked his best friend. Shikamaru chuckled a bit.

"You're a real pal, you know that, Chouji?" The plump boy gave a small grin to his best bud. Chouji then looked towards Ino, a serious look on his face.

"He was right, you know, about her." Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at the Akimichi and shrugged.

"Maybe… but man, I never thought I'd see someone crazy enough to make her angry and not get mauled." Fortunately, Ino didn't listen this time. Shikamaru would have sighed in relief, but really, it was too troublesome right now.

Chouji nodded in agreement. He then searched his pockets for something and took it out. "Oh, right!" He exclaimed. "Hey, Ino!"

Ino was mildly surprised, as was Shikamaru. Chouji then gave her a small envelope. Ino's bad mood returned when she learned it was from the boy who she felt humiliated her, but her curiosity about what was inside kept her from discarding it out of spite. The girl paled considerably when she held in her hand what was inside the envelope.

It was the earrings she had bought to impress Sasuke some time ago. During a moment when she was in a rather lousy mood, she took out her frustrations on the inexpensive but beautiful pieces of jewelry. She had tossed them on the ground and stomped on them like they were garbage. And here they were again, good as new. There was a small note accompanying the earrings, consisting of a simple message written in strong script.

_**Pair of Sun and Moon Earrings, repaired Free of charge. Don't be so vain.  
**_

0o0o0o0o0o0

Many thanks to Paintball-gamer and FictionReader 98 for their beta-work on this chapter. And thanks to my original beta, XYoushaX, who suggested my character's pseudonym. More on this will be explained next chapter.

Again, to my readers, sorry I took so long.


	6. Don't these guys know layman's terms?

Ramblings of the author: Did you guys think I was just going the way of other authors and give our boy Naruto special weapons and turn him into an instant badass? HECK, NO! I like the kid, but, making things too easy for him doesn't really make for an interesting story, in my opinion.

* * *

Chapter 5

Kakashi looked at what used to be a training ground that tended to have several practice dummies available for the shinobi who went there to practice. Yes, used to be, until Naruto made a mess of the surrounding area with his new toys... the Jounin beginning to ponder whether or not they were worth the damage they were causing.

If what he was seeing was any indication, the amount of power he put inside of the dagger back at the Hokage's office… was many margins smaller than what probably went into the meters wide crater in the ground. There were a few other craters of varying sizes, as well as several downed trees that used to have training targets.

He'd wondered idly why he even decided to try his hand at teaching again… this was not what he had in mind when he took Naruto as per the Hokage's instruction.

Earlier, the girl from Gai's squad, Tenten, chastised the boy Tatsuya, who apparently made the dangerous weapons, for selling them before letting her have a chance to test them herself AND being the indirect cause of the mess in the Hokage's office. Then, they went to the field to see the damage with their own eyes… and here they were.

"Well, while it seemed like a good idea at the time… I didn't expect THIS to happen," Tatsuya muttered to himself while he surveyed the mess. Kakashi turned his attention to the long haired boy.

"Oh, and what did you expect to happen?" The jounin asked.

"Well, I made them to knock over people and stuff, not... explode things like this," he scratched the back of his head, his embarrassment obvious. He looked towards Tenten, "At least, I didn't make them incendiary. That would have been worse."

Tenten sighed, pondering if it wasn't bad enough as it was. "You still haven't really explained why you sold them to him, Tatsuya."

"And you still haven't told me why you changed your name!" complained Naruto. After Tenten had dragged the boy to the back of the shop and questioned him about the sale he made and what happened, Tatsuya insisted to be brought to the field where Naruto used his stuff. Naruto still wanted to know why he went and decided to be called Tatsuya instead of… whatever it was that he called himself.

However, Tatsuya was seemingly ignoring him! Why that…

"Show Tenten-san one of you regular armaments, Naruto-san."

"Huh?" What was he talking about now?

"Tatsuya means one of your kunai and shuriken. You are a recently graduated genin, so you don't have anything else, aside from the 'toys' he sold you, right?" Tenten explained to Naruto, while shooting a slight glare at the long haired boy.

"Oh, that? Ye-Yeah, I knew that…" Not. In any case, Naruto obeyed and showed the girl a shuriken. Why the interest in his weapons? Sure, the guy who sold him the throwing knives looked at his weapons and said he could do better, but, he was probably bragging, right? He did make the stuff that caused him to get in trouble, so he was probably very good at making stuff like that and proud of it. Naruto thought if he had made the knives, he'd probably be bragging about it, too.

The girl's reaction, however, were a lot more visible than when What's-his-name checked over his Kunai. She looked surprised, and then she seemed a bit upset. "How much did you pay for these?"

Naruto, although somewhat confused by her question, was about to answer when he was stopped by Tatsuya. "Don't bother answering that, Naruto-san; you are only going to embarrass yourself." Naruto promptly shot him a dirty look.

"Why? What's so bad about them! I got them for a good price!" Naruto claimed, feeling embarrassed by the question itself. Tenten felt insulted when Naruto went and mentioned the price he paid for each piece anyways. Well, she wasn't insulted by the boy's comment, but, rather at the… person, who sold his basic weapons to him. The boy paid a premium for those pieces of scrap metal. No, scrap metal didn't really fit, but she was trying not to become visually agitated. She turned to the reason, they were in the ruined training ground in the first place, going on a hunch she had formed.

"Is this related to why you sold him your special project?" Tatsuya nodded in affirmation.

"Yeah. I thought if he liked them enough, he would seek me out later. I was trying to win the shop a new customer. Guess I shouldn't have taken the long way around. I believed he would have figured out the trick to the knives long before this." Kakashi decided to step in.

"Naruto hasn't been a genin that long," he said. "Maybe it was a bit too much to ask for him to be able to figure out how to make them work on his own?" Naruto felt like his teacher was putting him down.

"Hey! I would so have figured them out sooner if I didn't spend so much time on those cruddy missions you always make us do, Kakashi-sensei!" The boy then turned to see the kunoichi raising an eyebrow and the Hobo staring at him blankly... at least he thought it was blankly… How the heck could he see anything with those long bangs in the way? "What, you don't think I could have done it?" Tenten put up her hands in a defensive gesture.

"Uh, we didn't say anything!" Tenten declared rather hastily, Tatsuya stepping in to defend himself as well.

"Yeah, I think it's safe to say that we were both just wondering why you were raising such a stink without need. Besides," he turned towards the Jounin, "I saw some people practicing infusing energy into their weapons. In my experience, they tend to start people early on such exercises, since they aren't as simple as you might think. Getting your power into the weapon is only the first step. Also… I figured he would come and ask his Jounin instructor for help." This sincere statement had the side effect of making Naruto feel stupid. Again.

The truth was, Naruto was keeping them secret until he could figure out the special trick. He had wanted to impress Sakura and trump Sasuke with his new weapons. So whenever he could spare the time, he would go to some of the training grounds where people wouldn't really bother him. He had never thought to ask any sensei for help, Iruka or Kakashi. He hadn't wanted to bother Iruka, and he was normally too pissed at the stupid missions that he didn't even want to look at Kakashi-sensei sometimes.

"Do you really believe it would have been so simple if he had asked me about it?" Kakashi spoke. "After all, I'm not exactly familiar with weapons like this, and I don't tend to do what you described." Tatsuya raised an eyebrow at him.

"Yeah, I do believe so, since I made them pretty user friendly as it were," the boy then gestured to Naruto to give him one of his creations. "And besides, you didn't say you weren't familia- CRAP!" he let go of the Shockwave Knive like it was on fire. In fact, it was sparking quite a bit, drawing attention from everyone. Naruto looked terrified.

"What… What's going on?" Had he been ripped off by the Hobo as well? Did people really do what he mentioned with weapons? Was Kakashi saying the truth about not knowing anything about those type of techniques? "What's going on! Why is it doing that?"

"I should be asking you that, Naruto-san," said Tatsuya, picking up the weapon from the floor and looking at it after the sparks "I think you broke them".

"Why are you blaming me? I did what you told me to!" However, the other boy just showed the weapon to Naruto, pointing to a section in the shaft with his pinky. The genin found a blackened area he hadn't noticed when he took the weapon from his bandolier. "Hey, that wasn't there before."

"And it shouldn't be there in the first place, Naruto-san. It's a good thing I didn't tell you to fire off one of these again," then, Tenten walked towards the boys took the ruined weapon and examined it. Looking closer, the seal seemed a bit warped. She tried to recall what that part of the seal he carved into the weapon did, but with the seal damaged as it was, she couldn't really tell.

"Say, Tatsuya, what is this section supposed to do?" the girl asked. Tatsuya sighed, sitting on the soft forest loam and laying his cane to one side, his gaze focusing on nothing in particular.

"That's where the limiter is supposed to be. The way it reacted when I tried charging it…" he turned towards Naruto, "Seems like this guy went way over what it could handle… what any of them was made to handle."

"Kakashi-sensei… err… what's a limiter?" Naruto asked the jounin. Kakashi noticed with ease how embarrassed his student was, and how hard he was trying to keep his embarrassment from showing. Not that it would do much good against him. Gai's student and her family's employee were now involved in a conversation regarding the broken tools and what to do next. He sighed, not really seeing any way out of this one.

"In this case, a limiter is, to my understanding, what determines just how much chakra you can put into something, like for example, the things you used to rearrange this training ground." He tried saying that last portion in a not very serious tone, hoping to bring some relief to his student. It didn't really work as well as he would have liked, though.

"So, I broke this… limiter thing on the shock knives?" Naruto asked, although he already guessed the answer. Kakashi chuckled lightly.

"Well, it seems like you did. Look on the bright side: at least they didn't explode in your hands, did they Naruto?"

"Hatake-san! If I had wanted them to explode, I'd have made them out of wood or something flammable!" Tenten promptly smacked Tatsuya upside the head. "What?"

"Please don't scare a customer away, it's bad for business."

* * *

After they searched around for any shrapnel, in case some of Naruto's ruined weapons did explode, Tenten decided they should head to the store again and speak with her dad and her uncle about what to do about Tatsuya and his customer/charity case/friend, Naruto. She was still upset at the boy's foolishness, even if she understood a bit why he did it. I mean, one look at Naruto, and she could tell he needed help.

A lot of it.

However, even if the younger genin was getting ripped off by whatever store he went to, Tatsuya should have been more straightforward, or maybe even come and get her, her dad or Uncle Satoshi. Not do something as stupid as all but giving away one of his experiments to a rookie. Especially to a kid who apparently lacked even more common sense than the one who provided them to him.

Said "kid" was now involved in a questioning session to his sensei about techniques with pushing chakra into weapons like Tatsuya had claimed he had seen and other stuff. As she watched the blond fire off round after round of questions to the Jonin, who only seemed to be half listening, yet half interested in his student's rambling, Tenten wondered right now why Maito Gai spoke as highly as he did of Hatake Kakashi.

He seemed a bit laid back, nothing like what she imagined the rival of the boisterous jounin she had been studying under for about a year to be. The way he slouched a bit, his hair that was all but defying gravity without any hair gel or spray, and the way he had his headband covering his left eye didn't exactly give a threatening air, or one of competence. In fact, he seemed to be very sloppy and lazy.

Still, Maito Gai himself wasn't a normal character, a fact made glaringly obvious due to her own teammate's accurate imitation of the man, so that didn't exactly mean that Kakashi was as harmless as he was trying to make himself out to be. He was a jounin, after all, and you don't achieve that rank in the Leaf Village without being able to back it up somehow, right?

However, if it had been Lee and Gai in place of Naruto and Kakashi, Tenten knew that Gai would have wasted no time answering any questions Lee ever made. Well, he never delayed much in answering any questions that any of his students made of him. She'd remembered that time she asked him about reading body movements and using other clues to determine the state of your opponent and what actions they might take. Neji was very good at this, aided with his special eyes, but she wanted to know if there was a way for a normal person to learn to do that.

It had been very early in her career as a genin, so she was very surprised when Gai started to sort of act like an actual mature adult... well, just a LOT more restrained than he normally was, once he started explaining some of the basics of body-reading and other things, instead of his normal wacky self that she had come to view him from her first impression of him. Lee's overt admiration for their sensei wasn't too misplaced.

Maito Gai was very good at what he did. His training methods were efficient, he knew how to word things when he was making an explanation, and there was no denying his skill in combat. She remembered how quickly he disposed of several of the bandits they had encountered in one of their C-Rank missions. Tenten, to her shame, had not been watching where she was stepping, and fell face first on the ground during that battle. She might have died had it not been for her teacher, as a bandit had been moving in on her position, poised to take her life.

She tried reading Kakashi's body movements out of the corner of her eyes. Despite his small slouch, his movements had a sort of fluidity to them that ordinary civilians didn't have. This meant that Kakashi could possibly move from the state he was to combat ready in the blink of an eye. So, he was definitely skilled, regardless of what his outward behavior would say.

She also checked Naruto. In comparison with Kakashi, the new genin's movements were very rough and a bit clumsy. But it hasn't been that long since Graduation at the academy, so that's to be understandable. It's not like new graduates were going to exit the academy with the ability to move like a more experienced ninja or something.

Speaking of Kakashi, it was still hard for Tenten to believe that this laid back man was Gai's big arch rival, because he didn't seem to know how to handle his student, smooth body movements or not. She really hoped there was more to this man than what it seemed.

"Well, Tenten-san, I never pegged you as the type to fancy older men," Tatsuya whispered to Tenten, quickly breaking her out of her reverie. This also had the effect of making the Girl choke up a bit before she got her breathing back under control.

"Tatsuya!" she pinched the boy's side in retaliation. Hard.

"Ow! Sorry, Tenten-san… but you were looking a bit intently at Hatake-san… and I couldn't resist," the boy said, holding in a snigger. Tenten made a mental note to try and become less obvious at reading people. That, and have Tatsuya join her for "target practice" later.

"Kakashi-sensei, will you give me one of your kunai, please?" Naruto wasn't really making much progress in questioning Kakashi about jutsu using weapons like Or- err, Tatsuya- said they did around the village. So, he got tired of that and decided to compare the quality of his kunai to that of his sensei, although maybe the jounin wasn't really going to do that much.

"Sure, here you go Naruto," oh, guess he was wrong about that. In any case, Naruto moved ahead to the other two, ignoring the shift in Kakashi's attention to him.

"Hey, you two!" Tenten and Tatsuya turned to regard Naruto. Kakashi looked on as his student started pestering their companions over the metal of the kunai and other things. He didn't expect to be surprised today, but the Jounin should have realized that "surprising" and Naruto go hand in hand with ease. Of course, in this case, it would be "surprising amount of trouble", and trouble was already something that was linked to his student since his time in the academy, at least according to the written reports about the boy he had managed to read. Now it seemed that Naruto had apparently befriended another fellow troublemaker, albeit an accidental one.

Of course, in his line of work, you had to be sure that accidents were just accidents. And so far, Hatake Kakashi, the legendary Copycat Ninja hadn't really had that much of a chance to make certain of it. When he was looking at the knives Naruto apparently bought from the Tatsuya boy, he tried to compare them to the seal systems he was familiar with. Aside from some characters that might have been familiar, and he had to memorize hundreds of them, the array that was etched into the metal (that was another thing he hadn't seen before, seal etching) was not something he could recall seeing before. Not that he had really paid much attention to development in armaments in the first place.

No, that had always been his father's thing. Many didn't realize it, but Hatake Sakumo was the one who had developed the chakra fang that gained him his title in the first place. Like other things about his father at the time, Kakashi hadn't wanted anything to do with the crafting of weapons. He preferred to stick to jutsu, which was why he had collected so many during his career. Although in hindsight, maybe he could have at least learned how to do maintenance and repairs on the White Fang. Whatever issues Kakashi might have with his father notwithstanding, the White Fang was a memento of his late father, and a unique weapon in its own right.

He stopped his line of thought right there. Of all the people that were no longer among the living, Hatake Sakumo was one subject that he tended to avoid if he could help it… This had definitely being a strange day.

* * *

With nothing else to do for the time being, Satoshi enjoyed a quick snack from the leftovers his employee had brought with him. After going through the junk the boy was collecting, of course. Of course, said "junk" could be salvaged; Tatsuya did seem to have a knack to find good metal among the scraps, some of which he really hoped were just discarded by those who didn't know about taking care of their tools, rather than being stolen. Not that there was any chance of the latter being true. He might have been retired from active duty, but he wasn't so out of touch that he couldn't tell what kind of person Tatsuya was.

Of course, that wasn't going to stop him from giving the boy a penalty for selling one of his weird experiments so recklessly like that. He liked the kid, but he wasn't about to let him get out of trouble for free. So, he waited for his darling niece to return with the boy soon and hopefully to bring the jounin and his student with him as well. New customers are very much welcome for many a business, after all.

The bell on the door signaling someone coming rung, and lo and behold, it was Ten-chan and her entourage of misfits, 'Hehe, good one,' he thought to himself. He was kinda disappointed in Tatsuya's reaction to his food being eaten by someone else, however. Palming his face and deadpanning a statement along the lines of "I was saving that for later", wasn't a very amusing response. He'd have to step up his game to get a rise out of Tatsuya later on. Of course, that didn't mean his precious Ten-chan wasn't fair game!

"Hey, Ten-chan! Nice to see you didn't harm anyone! Or did they just get out of the hospital?" Tenten looked like she wanted to strangle her uncle and die of embarrassment at the same time.

"Uncle…" she groaned. Why was he always teasing her about being violent? It's almost as annoying as some of those idiots back in the academy that thought she had something called a "weapon's fetish", sure, she liked weapons, but after looking for definitions of what a fetish was... aided by a few… explanations from her Uncle... bastard, she was certainly disgusted at the kind of implications were being said about herself.

Tenten was usually known for keeping a level head since before graduation, something that many other students lacked afterward. The whole "Tenten is a violent girl" thing had more to do with her uncle, the bastard, joking around about her choosing to be a weapons specialist supposedly because she had hidden pent up aggression, and having lots of sharp and pointy things allowed her to express the violence in a productive manner.

Ironically his, supposedly, lighthearted ribbing caused her no end of grief and sometimes got her to fantasize about using that one special technique of hers on him. But she wouldn't do it. No, her tools and weapons were to be used against enemies and during practice sessions with allies. She calmed down a bit when she heard Tatsuya explain to Naruto about Uncle Satoshi's lousy sense of humor and how he just liked riling her up. Naruto's sigh of relief made her wonder idly what kind of experiences he did have with girls in the first place for some reason. "…We need to talk about something," she said to her uncle.

On another occasion, he'd probably call it a buzz-kill that his niece would take such a serious tone with him and ruined the mood, but he wasn't a jerk. "Really now, Ten-chan?" Satoshi asked the girl, who didn't respond to the hated nickname. This was serious. "What do you gotta talk about?" She explained the situation with Naruto's equipment. Satoshi raised his eyebrows and passed a stare at the two boys before doing a double take when he really recognized the boy in the gaudy orange clothes. He could tell that the jounin was Hatake Kakashi, whom he only met once in passing, and who also noticed his reaction.

"Well, let's see… come here, kid," Satoshi gestured towards Naruto. "Yeah, you, the kid in the eye bleeding orange get-up! Get over here!"

Naruto wondered what the chubby weirdo at the counter wanted with him. Oh well whatever it was, it probably was going to be less confusing than a lot of the stuff that he had been learned today. "Yeah, what do ya want, old man?" Naruto said to him. Satoshi just laughed at the genin's bluster. "Hey! What's so funny?" Whatever reaction Naruto might have been expecting, it was NOT to get his hair mussed up roughly by the strange guy!"Hey! Knock it off!" Naruto tried swatting away the much larger hand, but to no avail. Satoshi stopped on his own, but still looked like it was the funniest thing ever. Now Naruto understood why Tenten was annoyed by this guy.

Unfortunately for Naruto, Satoshi didn't stop there. "Well, aren't you just adorable, getting all worked up like that?" Said genin was getting red faced in shame, not anger. In his mortification, Naruto missed the badly stifled giggles from his sensei and the girl. Guess she found it funny no to be the target this time or something.

"Seriously though, Naruto - that's your name, right?" Satoshi spoke to Naruto, who looked at the man with something akin to murder in his eyes. "My two kids over there told you about the quality of the metals and weapons and other technical stuff, right?" Naruto grumbled an affirmative and kept on muttering some foul oaths and other things directed at seemingly no one in particular. "Let me guess: That just went completely over your head, right?"

Naruto scratched the back of his head. "Well, yeah! I mean, isn't it enough to just keep them sharp? I mean, why does it matter how they are made?" Naruto asked in a genuinely curious manner... though that didn't stop Tatsuya from nearly rapping the boy over the skull, a move only prevented by Tenten holding the boy back by his wrist.

Satoshi gave a face and then started shaking his head, 'tsk'ing Naruto's ignorance before launching into a lecture."Well, Whiskers, I think you just need a little something called a hands-on demonstration for this!" Before Naruto could complain about the nickname slapped on him by the weird guy.

'Are grownups supposed to be that happy or weird? I mean I know Kakashi-sensei's a weirdo, but he's not nearly as happy...' Naruto thought to himself, Satoshi proceeding to make a request.

"Okay, kid, gimme one of your kunai, then one of _his _kunai" he motioned to Kakashi, "and then I'll bring one of ours!"

Naruto, possessing one of his sensei's kunai already, handed the standard ninja tools to the man behind the counter and wondered what he was going to do."Are you going to juggle them or something?" he asked Satoshi. The elder man looked on at the blond, bewildered being an understatement as his gaze remained locked onto the silly blond… for about two seconds. Almost immediately, his face lit up and he pulled his head back and laughed. And a deep, booming laugh it was.

"Great idea, kid!" With the two kunai in one hand, Satoshi shuffled to a stash of recently forged kunai and took one out with his other hand. "Lady and Gentlemen! The moment you have all been waiting for! The Great Satoshi's Juggling Act!" Hah! Even Tenten was slack jawed! Score one, out of a hundred, for Satoshi!

And then he started juggling. He had to prevent himself from laughing out loud at the faces of his captive audience. Juggling took concentration, after all. Just a little bit.

"Now folks, don't try this at home. I'm a trained professional, as in 'trained to make it look easy'." He chuckled a bit, not stopping his juggling act. "Also, remember that all three kunai are made by three different people, probably, and the tiniest differences in mass and stuff mean I have to be VERY careful with my timing. Or I lose fingers... and I just so happen to like my fingers." A few more rounds of spinning the dangerous weapons, Satoshi stopped the juggling and palmed them. Then he took a bow to his audience. "Thank you all! You've been a great audience! And now, for my next trick!"

Before Naruto or anyone could ask what the performance had to do with the quality of the blades, the elder man threw them. The three kunai flew past him, one after the other and into the door frame.

"Uncle!" Tenten was gobsmacked at the turn of events. Tatsuya was little better, and Kakashi was sort of impressed. Naruto was frozen in place trembling a bit.

"What… WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR! ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL SOMEONE?" the blond boy recovered fast enough for a little freak-out. All he got was the possibly insane guy's booming laughter, as he moved from behind the counter and passed by the irate Naruto and the other occupants of the store.

"Man, it's a slow day today, not many people coming in…" commented Satoshi to no one in particular. Moving towards the rather dead door frame, not that it was really alive in the first place, being made out of dead wood and all, he seemed unconcerned by the reactions of his niece or the others. Looking at his handiwork, he called to Naruto once more. "Well, Whiskers, come on over here and take a look at this kunai sticking to the door here."

Naruto grudgingly complied, but kept his guard up, since he didn't want to get those things stabbed on him or something. This old man was crazy.

"So, they're stuck in the wood. What's that got to do with anything? I get kunai stuck in wood like this when I practice." The answer Naruto got was a bit more chuckling.

"Well, you better look from over here instead, kid. Not gonna see it from the front, after all." So Naruto moved until he was seeing the doorframe more from the side, and then squinted. The Kunai were almost lined up like three upside down steps, seeing as they didn't penetrate all the same.

"You see the first kunai in the top? That's your. The middle one is Kakashi's, and the bottom one is one of mine." Satoshi explained, pointing at each of the blades in succession. "Now, the thing that my niece and errand boy over there failed to get through, was that the better the quality of the metal, the longer it can hold sharpness in its edge, and the sharper it can be. And the sharper it is, the deeper it can go into the wood."

"Oh! That's why!" Naruto exclaimed, finally understanding. "BUT WHY DID YOU THROW THEM, YOU JERK!"

"Eh, I was having fun and got carried away," Satoshi said with a shrug, not sounding the least bit repentant.

* * *

A few apologies, an exchange of defective products for a brand new set of Kunai and Shuriken, which was paid in part out of Tatsuya's paycheck, and Kakashi and Naruto left the premises and set out to their respective homes. Crisis with Tenten sort of averted, new customers gained, and nothing much to do but assign proper penalties to his best, and only, employee. Life was good. Still…

"Can't believe that damn rip-off is still in business… thought he was still in prison after the last time he scammed people." Tenten's uncle muttered. This caught his niece's attention.

"You mean he's done it before?" She asked.

"Well, the last time, he'd been taken in after a couple of chuunin and jounin squads had some… mishaps with their tools. Nearly caused a couple of casualties, too. Guess he decided to stick to just one sucker this time. Probably why he hasn't been caught again. Poor kid," the man shook his head a bit sadly. "Okay, next order of business... what the hell were you thinking Tatsuya?" the boy in question flinched slightly.

"I kinda followed a gut feeling I had, sir," he was looking a bit pale now.

"Gut feeling huh? Well, I hope that feeling wasn't your gut asking for food and getting some quick cash for a snack." The boy was clenching his jaw.

"Sir, I wouldn't-" Satoshi interrupted Tatsuya.

"Son, I know you meant well, but please, next time you pull a scheme to get us a customer, clear it up with me first." A glint appeared in his eye. "In the meantime, as per the rules of being a good boss, I get to decide what sort of punishment I get to inflict upon you."

"You mean, I'm grounded, sir?" this response gained a chuckle from the older man.

"Oh yeah, you are way grounded kid. No going near a hammer and anvil for a week and no going on those scrap runs of yours. I know the recycling thing is good and all, but we ain't doing badly enough that we can't hire a couple of genin teams for it. There is going to be plenty of grunt work in your immediate future. And…" he did a close approximation of a malevolent giggle. "You forfeit any and all beef related food, with the proceeds going to my stomach. And whatever else I come up with."

While the boy tried to look as unaffected as possible, he was screaming internally or something similar in regards to his favorite type of meat being off limits. Satoshi decided it was enough for now, and closed up the shop. The kid was looking like he was close to dropping dead on the spot, and it had nothing to do with the punishment.

* * *

The Village Hidden in the Waterfall was a small ninja village and one of the nominal allies of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Despite its size, it could boast to being the only true Hidden Village, seeing that unlike the others, only someone who came from Waterfall would know of its location, or how to enter and exit it. This had some disadvantages. Since the village was pretty much inaccessible by normal people, whatever clients that might want to hire Waterfall Ninja couldn't really get to the village proper in order to acquire the service of the elusive Waterfall Ninja. This suited them just fine. The location of the village made it very much unlikely they'd have to deal with attacks from outsiders, unless they were lead in by unwilling guides, gullible idiots or traitors. As for missions, this matter was resolved by means of using outposts in select locations to receive mission assignments and payments. Sure, there was the matter of getting to the outposts from the Village, but it wasn't really much of a problem for Waterfall Ninja to get to them.

Jyo Fuu, however, hated it.

Sure, most of the D-rank missions were performed inside the village proper, but really, Hidden Waterfall Village wasn't that big, at least, not as big as some of the other villages, like Leaf, were reputed to be, which meant D-rank assignments were relatively more scarce than some types of higher rank missions. At least, the ones handled inside the village. There were always some D-ranks from outside the village, usually to help some of the farms in the region or some such thing. But going outside the village usually meant one thing: getting wet. Getting in and out of the village usually meant traveling through some underwater passages connected to the waterfall their village derived their name from. Because of this, Waterfall Ninja had to be good at swimming, diving, and holding their breaths, just to be able to get out into the outside.

Not that she was a bad swimmer. At age 11, Fuu knew she could outlast several people her age, and some that were older than her. Even now, Shibuki, the son of the village leader and head ninja, still couldn't quite match her time holding their breaths. Never mind he wasn't quite as… special… as she was, but, he was almost seventeen, so it was still a bit embarrassing to be trumped by Fuu, who was five or six years Shibuki's junior. But that was neither here nor there.

It was annoying having to get wet every time she just wanted to see some sunlight. That's right; the village she was born in was pretty much underground. Only ninja or those civilians adventurous enough to swim through the underwater passages ever saw the light of day, or the stars of night. This didn't happen very often with the majority of the 'normal' villagers, who were for the most part perfectly happy to stay in their nice little bubble prison. Even a few of the Shinobi felt the same way. '_Idiots,' _the girl thought to herself as she often did thinking about the cowering of those fools that shouldn't even wear the village insignia.

No, being out here, in the outside world, feeling the warmth of the sun and the tickling of the breeze over her skin and through her hair, that was better than staying under the earth like moles. Maybe worms would be more appropriate. Plenty were spineless enough to qualify, in her opinion.

Sighing in boredom, Fuu passed her fingers through her short cropped, mint colored hair, before bringing her hand to her line of sight. She idly remembered some of the older females commenting on her skin and her hair some times, like how her hair would look so much better if it was longer instead of the "tomboyish look" she supposedly went for, and how they were envious of her tanned skin and asked her what she did to get it to look like it did.

Fuu closed her eyes, shaking her head in annoyance at the direction her thoughts had gone. She was a kunoichi, a warrior. Well, she was still a genin, but that was only in rank. She could always wipe the floor with her two teammates, at the same time. That was always sort of fun. She'd failed to understand why other girls and older women put so much attention to looking pretty or something. Her mom was sort of into that as well, which tended to exasperate Fuu a lot, especially when she had to stomach some "Girl Time", doing silly girl stuff that Fuu didn't really care much for. She still went along with it for her mother's sake though. She just wished her mother would stop commenting about spending some time with friends or something. She didn't like being reminded that most people her age pretty much avoided her, so she didn't really have anyone she could call a friend. Her two teammates weren't exactly 'friend material' in her opinion, either.

Well, there was the Bug, but he was more like an annoying little kid most of the time when he wasn't being helpful in her training and stuff.

She'd rather put up with the blathering of the Bug right now than wait here until that delegation of the Sand Village arrived. Heck, she'd rather be training right now just to have something to do other than think about the crap in her life that she'd rather avoid thinking about.

Despite the protection they had by the Waterfall's underwater passages, they were a hindrance when it came to moving a heavy amount of supplies in or out of the village. So, until you could use seals for storage, carrying a large amount of things into the village was annoying, especially when they were things that couldn't get wet. Like the storage scrolls, but they had air-tight containers to keep them dry. Also, the ninja forces were encouraged not to leave the village unless necessary. Well, in her opinion, getting out and being under the sky made it very necessary to stay sane rather than suffer from the massive amount of cabin fever that could set in…

Okay, so she just hated being under the ground all the time. Hated it.

Wasn't the delegation from Hidden Sand getting here soon? Fuu's thoughts were wandering too much, and she didn't like that. Having too much time on her hands led her to thinking about stuff she didn't like much. Like her mom's current suitor. She hated the suck-up bastard. It was always the same. Someone would try and court mom and tried to play nice with the little freak of a daughter of the Jyo family until they got fed up with her and left her mom alone. Why was her mother dating such losers, anyway?

The delegation arrived at last. Frankly, Fuu didn't know why her team was called to meet them in the first place, and her sensei had been kinda close mouthed about it. That wasn't a good thing. Her two teammates were either closemouthed about it or so oblivious that they didn't realize it. Sure, Shibuki was the chief's son, but he wasn't really anything worth showing off yet. Then there was her, of course. But she hardly saw the need to be there, and by extension, the rest of her team.

They weren't civilians. They were Shinobi from Hidden Sand Village, at least most of them were. One of them was wearing a ridiculous outfit that looked like black pajamas with a cat eared hood and purple face paint. Purple. He also had a bundle in bandages, or a bundle of bandages, she couldn't tell, hanging from his back with a silly patch of what looked like brown hair. The older guy, who she figured was the jounin instructor due to the supposedly standard issue jounin flak vests and brown colored garment, had a bandanna of some sort wrapped around his head, with a piece of cloth covering half of his face like a curtain, probably wanting to cover that half of his face looked like a girl's or something ridiculous like that.

Then there was a short red head with a gourd, A GOURD, strapped to his back. He also looked like he had a bad need of shut-eye: the dark holes around his eyes made it look like he had painted dark circles in them. His expression was boringly blank, and he had a word tattooed to his brow. Love? He had the word love tattooed on his face? Any other witty insults she might have come up with halted on the spot when the redheaded boy came closer. Dangerous. That's what her senses were telling her. It would have been laughable except that the Bug was stirring from his nap. That was never a good thing.

That the boy was making the Bug stir, not the bug waking up. That was just annoying sometimes. The most normal looking of the group were the females. Joy. The blonde girl was wearing a passable outfit, sort of, but she wondered why she put her hair up in those short cropped pony tails that seemed to have been arranged at the angles of a square and all shooting outwards diagonally. Maybe she should have just let her hair down, but who was she to criticize? She just brushed a bit and used hairclips herself. The other was a girl about her own age, was wearing an outfit similar to the older blonde, except it was of a light violet color with some blue thrown in here and there and a bandanna of a similar color on her head. She also had long, orange-ish hair that seemed to be a bit coarse, the way some parts were sticking up. And what was with the black dye job in her bangs?

She was also looking her way. And that way, and back some other way as well and back to her. She smiled and waved at her and Fuu… politely waved back. Oh, brother, was she one of those hyperactive wall-banger types that had problems staying still? While the sensei's were communicating, and the rest of the ninja squad from Suna looked bored... well, the redheaded boy looked at her once like he was wondering what it would be like to wear her spleen on a hat or something disturbing like that… he was creepy, the redheaded girl, apparently a civilian they were escorting, made her way towards her made her way towards her, an excited grin on her face

"Hi! My name is Sage! Wanna be friends?" Fuu just smiled awkwardly, already thinking about any possible escape routes to move away from the energetic, or perhaps somewhat crazed, girl. Today just didn't seem to be her day.

* * *

Sorry this chapter took so long, folks. It's also shorter than I had wanted, but a friend had to remind me that what mattered was the content, not the word count.

About the pronunciation of Sage: You can pronounce it in English, but I'd suggest using the Japanese pronunciation suggested by the talented XyoushaX as "Sah-geh", as in the word "Sageru", which means "keep away". Kinda like what Fuu wants her to do.

Thanks to Arganaut and Paintball-gamer for their beta work.


End file.
